


Time and Tide and Terrible Twists of Fate

by aurora_australis



Category: Agent Carter (TV), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Arcs - they're not just for reactors!, Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Spoilers, Doing my best with science, F/M, Gen, Peggy has excellent taste and everyone is an adult, Post-Avengers: Endgame (Movie), Time Travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-16
Updated: 2019-08-30
Packaged: 2020-09-01 19:40:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 20,773
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20263465
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aurora_australis/pseuds/aurora_australis
Summary: A lot more happened after Steve returned the stones...





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> So I had... opinions about the end of _Endgame_. Strong opinions. And friends who were almost certainly tired of hearing about said strong opinions. I also happen to really like all of the characters involved and felt they deserved better. So... be the ending you want to see in the world, I guess?
> 
> Anyway, 20,000 words later I feel a little better and you have something to read on the bus. Win/win I hope. Enjoy!
> 
> A million thanks to Fire_Sign and Sarahtoo for talking things through with me and just being awesome cheerleaders in general.

Peggy glanced at the clock and sighed. It was almost midnight, she was tired, and sleep was nowhere in sight. Daniel had already gone to bed, with a kiss to her head and an admonishment to not stay up too late, but there was just so much to _do_. Peggy looked down at the table and the two projects before her and sighed again; one was the quarterly budget review that had been due a week ago and the other was the seating chart for her wedding and, honestly, she didn’t know which she’d rather work on less. But she had really put both off long enough. And seeing as how she and Daniel had agreed to split the wedding tasks, and he had handled all the invitations, it was her turn. No matter how tedious she found the task. After a third (somewhat self-indulgent) sigh, she rolled her shoulders and contemplated making some tea, only to be interrupted by a loud knock at the door.

Peggy started. Who on earth would be coming by this late? A neighbor perhaps, though she couldn’t think why, except for an emergency. Same for work. The knock came again, even more insistent the second time. Peggy stood to open it, then wavered. This wasn’t technically her house yet - the wedding was still two weeks away - but honestly, all the people who would be shocked by her staying here were still across the Atlantic and the third pounding on the door convinced her this, whatever this was, was urgent. Peggy grabbed her gun, just in case, and opened the door.

She didn’t really know who she had been expecting to be on the other side, but a bedraggled Steve Rogers was not it.

Peggy froze. She actually froze. She couldn’t remember the last time she had done such a thing, but here she was. Frozen. 

Steve smiled at her, tired and sad. “Hi Peggy.”

“Steve.” She meant to ask it as a question, but it wasn’t one, not really.

Oh, she wanted to believe it was a trick by Leviathan. Or HYDRA. Or any one of the other hundred enemies she’d made. But one look into his eyes and she knew, she _knew_, it was Steve. Not her Steve, that much is also clear - time and tide and terrible twists of fate had seen to that. But he _was_ Steve and he was here and faced with that knowledge, Peggy said the only words her overwhelmed mind would form. 

“You’re late.”

“Well, I couldn't call my ride,” he replied with a rueful grin.

And that was it, that was what finally broke through. A choked sob escaped her throat and she stepped back to allow him inside. Steve nodded to her hand, and she realized, dully, that she was still holding a gun on him. She moved to place it back in her purse, taking a moment while she was faced away for a deep, steadying breath. She turned back just as he shut the door behind him.

“Steve, what - ”

Steve didn’t even let her get the question out, he just started rambling. “I messed up, Peg. I tried… I thought I could save him, but I just messed it up worse and I need your help.” He sounded utterly devastated and her heart broke a little for him in that moment. But before she could answer there was a noise from the hall.

Daniel.

“Peggy? Is someone at the door? I thought I heard - ”

And then he was there. Standing in the entryway to the living room, with his crutch under his arm and his pajama leg pinned up and a look of utter bafflement on his face.

Peggy took another breath, preparing to explain the situation even if she didn’t really understand it herself, but Steve, who had used the interruption to compose himself, beat her to it.

“Mr. Sousa? I’m sorry to disturb you so late, but I need Peggy’s help. I need both your help. My name is - ”

“I know who you are,” Daniel interrupted. He looked to Peggy for more explanation, but all she could do was offer a bewildered shrug.

“Right.” Daniel started to turn away and Peggy finally found her voice.

“Where are you going?”

“To get coffee and my leg - I have a feeling I’m going to need both.”

He disappeared down the hall and Peggy turned back to Steve.

“What do you need?” she asked.

“Right now? That coffee sounds great.”

\---------------------

Steve watched Peggy watch Daniel walk down the hall and hoped desperately he hadn’t just messed up her life as well. But it was too late to go back now. If wishes were horses, and all that.

After a moment, Peggy turned back to him. “What do you need?” She sounded utterly sincere and he decided in that moment to trust that he’d made the right decision in coming here.

Steve considered launching into the whole sordid story right then, but had a feeling he really would need Sousa’s help as well and didn’t feel like repeating himself. “Right now? That coffee sounds great.”

Peggy nodded and took his coat to hang on the rack. Then she gestured for him to follow her to another room down the hall. As they walked, Steve looked down at the table and noticed an unmistakable stack of crisp, white RSVP cards. 

Her wedding.

Her wedding was soon. So much sooner than he had realized.

He was struck with another pang of regret, but wishes still weren’t horses so he kept walking.

As he entered the kitchen, Steve was hit with the familiar scent of coffee brewing; Daniel must have started the percolator before attending to his leg.

Peggy nodded to the table. “Have a seat,” she said. Then she grabbed three mugs from the cupboard and silently waited for the machine to complete its task.

Steve looked around the small kitchen. It was… nice. Not homey, per se; clearly neither of them cooked all that often. But it wasn’t sterile. There was a well used kettle on the range, a half eaten pastry of some kind on the counter. A 1949 calendar with dates circled and events added. This was their kitchen. This was their life.

And he was quite possibly about to blow it up.

“I’m sorry,” he said, quietly. Peggy looked back at him.

“For what?”

Before he could answer, Daniel appeared in the doorway. He’d donned his prosthetic leg and was wearing slacks and a shirt now instead of pajamas. As he sat down at the table, Peggy handed him one of the mugs of coffee, then grabbed the other two and placed them on the table in front of Steve and a third empty chair. 

“No tea?” Daniel asked her.

“I thought perhaps tonight called for something stronger.” Peggy then set a bottle of brandy down on table, before taking a seat. “Help yourself,” she told the table in general as she added a liberal dose to her drink. Daniel took the bottle from her and did the same, then went to hand it to Steve, who shook his head.

“Still can’t get drunk,” he said, almost apologetically. Daniel raised an eyebrow but didn’t comment, setting the bottle back on the table and taking a sip of his coffee.

After a moment’s silence, Peggy cleared her throat. “So…” she began. “Would it be rude of me to ask where in the bloody hell you’ve been for the last four years?”

Steve chuckled. Partly at her still being the same brash Peggy and partly at the concept of time she was alluding to; four years ago for him was _not_ 1945.

“Something funny?” she asked.

“No,” he said, “not really. I just… what I’m about to tell you, I can’t tell you everything, and you might not believe the parts I can, but I promise you - it’s all true.”

Peggy took a sip of her coffee and nodded, so Steve continued.

“When the _Valkyrie_ went down in ‘45, I didn’t die.”

“Yes, thank you, I figured that part out all on my own,” Peggy said, her tone curt and her voice tighter now that the shock was wearing off and other emotions were taking its place.

“Peg…” Daniel murmured, reaching over to take her hand. She clasped it tightly, but didn’t take her eyes off Steve. “Let the man talk. I get the impression he’s come a long way to be here.”

Steve nodded. “You have no idea.” Peggy opened her mouth to say something else, but Steve threw his hands up to stop her. “But you will.” He took a deep breath. 

“So… in 1945 I went into the ice and was, well, basically frozen. I guess the serum shielded me in some way, preserved me. I was found about 65 years later. Revived. I joined - ” 

He stopped himself. He couldn’t mention S.H.I.E.L.D., he had no idea if she’d started working on it yet. “An agency,” he amended. “I worked with a team there to help keep the world safe. A lot of things happened, most of which I can’t tell you about, but pertinent to why I’ve come here... well, in the year 2023 time travel became necessary to, uh, save the world. The universe really. So we invented it.”

All this time, he was mostly talking to Peggy, but when he spared a look over to Daniel, Steve saw that he was listening intently but still calmly sipping his coffee, which honestly threw him a little; he’d expected a bigger reaction.

Steve turned and faced the other man. “I’m sorry, I don’t mean to be rude, but _none _of this is fazing you?”

At that, Daniel’s eyebrows knit together in surprise. “It should, shouldn’t it?” He glanced over at Peggy. “I think the fact that it’s not is proof that our jobs are about 200% too weird, Peg.” 

She didn’t respond. 

Peggy was gripping Daniel’s hand so hard that her knuckle was almost white, but she was still looking directly at Steve, and he saw the moment what he was telling her sunk in, saw her eyes widen, her lips part. “So what you’re saying,” she began, slowly and with a small tremor in her voice, “is that right now, _today_, you’re out there, somewhere, frozen in the ice.”

“Yes,” Steve said quietly, “and I know this is going to be the hardest part for you, but you can’t go looking for me.”

“The hell I can’t! Steve - ”

“Peggy.” Steve tried to keep his voice calm, but it was difficult - this would be the hardest part for him too. “You _can’t_. What’s done is done. Whatever else happens now, I need the me that’s out there today to stay in the ice until 2011. I have work to do in the future.” He swallowed. “Allow me the dignity of my choice. Please.”

Peggy closed her eyes, but he saw her grip on Daniel’s hand slacken, just a little. It was enough.

Daniel put down his mug and regarded Steve curiously. “So time travel is both possible and necessary. That’s… new. And you needed to come back to 1949 to save the world?”

“No.” Steve took a deep breath. “No I… I wasn’t supposed to come this far back. The mission was complete, but I needed to do some cleanup. I was supposed to return to 2023 after I was done. Instead… instead I decided to try and save Bucky.”

Peggy looked at Steve in surprise. “Bucky? You went back to Dr. Zola’s train?”

“No, I… I didn’t want to risk that mission. I went back to the Soviet Union. After the train.”

Peggy looked utterly confused now. Steve understood how she felt.

Peggy shook her head. “I don’t - ”

“Bucky’s alive, Peg. Whatever experiments they did on him in ’43 helped him survive the fall. Enemy agents found him and… He’s out there, right now, and he’s being hurt. Will continue to _be_ _hurt_ for over half a century. I had to try. I had to…” Steve ran a hand through his hair in frustration. 

“Bruce warned me, warned all of us, that we couldn’t. ‘Changing the past doesn't change the future’ he said. What had happened, had happened. But I thought, I don’t know, maybe I could mitigate it somehow. Make it easier on him in some way. I thought I could so _something_.” He sighed. “Bucky told me it was a terrible plan. ‘All the stupid plus a little extra’ I believe were his exact words.”

Daniel cleared his throat. “So Sergeant Barnes is alive and with you. In the future I mean. Yes?”

Steve nodded.

“So in your original timeline, he must have gotten away at some point. Right?”

Steve had to give him credit, the man sharp.

“Yeah. Yes. But... 50 years of pain. Being experimented on, brainwashed… it almost broke him.” He could hear the tremor in his voice, but he kept going. “And I knew the odds were slim, but if you could ease that, just a little, for someone you loved, wouldn’t you risk it? Wouldn’t you do _anything_? He’s family, Peg. Even when I had nothing, I had Bucky. I had to try. But I screwed it up. I screwed it up and I might have just made things worse.”

Steve closed his eyes, and tried to stop the tears that were pooling there from spilling over. 

It didn’t work, but he had to try. 

His eyes still screwed shut, he felt a small, strong hand take his own.

“What do you need?” Peggy asked once more. “What can we do?”

Steve took a deep breath and opened his eyes. He wiped his sleeve across his face to dry the traitorous tears that had escaped and squeezed Peggy’s hand once before letting go.

“I’ve been searching for him for a while. I knew of a place in Siberia to start, but I’m always a step behind. Still, I figured I had time. No one ever caught me, and I thought I could just follow the breadcrumbs until I found him. But I got careless.”

“How?” Peggy asked.

“I don’t know,” Steve answered honestly. “But a couple months ago I broke into a facility in Belarus and they were waiting for me. I barely got out alive. They wanted me, and they wanted this.” Steve held up his arm to show the device he always wore on his hand. “This is what allows me to time travel. Or, did anyway. It was damaged in the fight.”

“What is it?” Daniel asked.

“Well, Stark called it a 'Space-Time GPS' - ”

“Wait,” Daniel interrupted. “Howard Stark was part of this mad plan? Why am I not surprised?”

_Shit!_ Steve grit his teeth. He needed to be more careful. He couldn’t risk any more of the future than he already had.

“No,” he said. “Not Howard. A different Stark.”

Peggy raised an eyebrow at that, but stayed silent.

“Anyway,” Steve continued, “it gets me where I need to be. Or it did. It’s not responding now.”

“So you need our help fixing it?” Peggy asked.

“Yes, but there’s more,” he admitted.

“More?”

“They did something during the fight. Scanned it, or tagged it, I don’t know. Somehow they’re tracking it.” Daniel and Peggy simultaneously sat up at that, but Steve was quick to reassure them. 

“It takes a while though. At least a week. And I was in Kansas before this. Ever since I caught on, I’ve mostly just been moving around, but… it’s not a great long-term plan.” The words were coming out quickly now. “And I didn’t mean to come here and upend your lives, but I hoped maybe you could help. Because they can’t get their hands on this. They _can’t_. Even if they can’t use it for time travel, there’s no telling what they might achieve with technology like this. I need to get it out of their hands. Or I need to destroy it properly. And I thought… I thought maybe you could help.”

“With time travel technology from 75 years in the future?” Daniel’s tone was incredulous to say the least.

“Well…” Steve said with a slightly sheepish smile, “it is called the Strategic _Scientific_ Reserve.” 

Peggy and Daniel both got an odd look on their face at that, which Steve considered asking about, but ultimately decided not to. Instead, he looked the woman seated across from him square in the eye. 

“Peggy, there’s no one on this planet right now that I trust more. And I’m so sorry to do this to you, but I need your help.”

Peggy’s featured softened, and she covered his hand on the table with her own. “Steve, it’s taken me a long time to learn this lesson, but sometimes you have to put your faith in others to get the job done.” She looked over at Daniel with a tentative smile and a question in her eyes. He didn’t hesitate a moment before offering her a brief nod and Peggy’s smile became a bit less tentative. Then she turned back to Steve, a new note of iron in her voice.

“So we have a week until they find you?” Peggy asked, looking to confirm their timetable.

“They’ve never caught up to me faster than that,” Steve said. “And once I get on a train or a plane or a car moving fast enough, it seems to require them to recalibrate. I figure if you don’t have an answer for me in the next six days, I catch a plane to South America or something and come back in a year or two.”

“A year or two?” Peggy sounded concerned. “Steve, you said you’ve been looking for Bucky for a while now… how long have you been on your own?”

“Since I left 2023…” Steve thought. He wasn’t sure exactly how long it had taken him to replace the stones, but he could make a guess. “About two years now. Give or take.”

“Two years… oh, Steve.” Peggy sighed, a sad sort of sound laced with compassion. “We’re not waiting another year.” She stood up, and looked at both men. “Gentlemen, we have six days. Let’s get to work.”

\---------------------

By the time Steve had finished telling them his story, it was gone one in the morning and Peggy and Daniel decided there was nothing more they could realistically do that night. Daniel suggested they all try to get some sleep and start fresh on the problem in the morning.

Steve drained the last of his coffee and stood up. “I’ll go find a hotel, be back first thing.”

Daniel finished his own coffee and shook his head. “That’s not necessary. We have a guest room, you can stay here.”

Peggy paused halfway to the sink. Behind her, she could hear Steve freeze as well.

“That’s very kind of you to offer, Mr. Sousa, but - ”

“It’s expedient, Captain Rogers. We have six days. We should stick close. And really, it’s no trouble.” Daniel stood up and grabbed his crutch. “Peggy can set you up. I’m going to get on the horn to the night shift, set some things up for tomorrow.” He nodded at Steve and headed out to the living room and his phone.

Alone with Steve in the kitchen, Peggy suddenly felt terribly awkward. Without making eye contact, she collected Steve and Daniel’s mugs from the table, rinsed them out in the sink, and headed for the kitchen door. Pausing at the threshold she turned back to Steve. “Guest room is this way. Do you have any luggage?”

Steve picked up the rucksack he’d dropped by his chair when he’d sat down. “Just this.”

“Then follow me.”

Peggy led Steve down the hall, grabbing some linens from the hall closet on her way.

Steve followed her into a small room at the back of the house, dropped his rucksack just inside and moved to help her make up the bed. They moved swiftly and in tandem, quietly getting the room ready for his unexpected company. 

“It’s Chief.”

Steve looked up in surprise. Peggy had been fluffing a pillow and her sudden, quiet statement seemed to have caught him off guard.

“Excuse me?” he asked.

“It’s _Chief_ Sousa, not Mr. Sousa. I know you don’t mean anything by it, but - ”

“No, no, of course. I’m sorry. I just…” Steve laughed a little awkwardly. “I just wasn’t sure exactly where we were in the timeline. _Your_ timeline I mean. You’re… you’re still _Agent_ Carter, right?”

“What else would I be?”

Steve just smiled at her, a little enigmatic and more than a little proud. 

Peggy regarded him suspiciously, but decided not to pursue it. 

“The bathroom is the first door on the right. If you need anything, our room is right next door.”

Steve nodded. “Thanks.” He looked around. “It’s a really nice house. Have you lived here long?”

“Daniel has. He bought it a few years ago. I just - ” Peggy stopped. He wasn’t… She narrowed her eyes and straightened her spine. “Are you implying something?”

Steve looked confused. “I’m sorry?”

“About my living here. Are you implying something untoward? Because my lease was up and we’re about to be married, so it was just a practical - are you _laughing_?”

He was. 

“I’m sorry, Peggy, I don’t mean to… It’s just, in the future, couples live together all the time until they get married. _If_ they get married at all. I wasn’t implying anything. I didn’t even think about it. I was just making conversation.”

“Oh. Well. Good.” Peggy finished fluffing the pillow, with a bit more force than necessary, and moved towards the door. “Do you need anything else?”

“No, I’m good. Peggy?”

She stopped in the frame and turned back. “Yes?”

“Thank you again.”

Peggy nodded and smiled at him, but even she could feel it was strained. Leaving the guest room, she moved into the bathroom to remove her makeup, taking a moment to splash some cold water on her face after she did. Then she walked down the hall and into the bedroom she shared with Daniel.

He was on the bed, re-removing his prosthetic, and she moved around him to gather her pajamas, silently undressing as he did the same. After a few minutes they both climbed into bed, lying next to each other.

She could almost hear him thinking and she braced herself for the inevitable questions. A moment later he turned his body to face her and spoke.

“Peggy, I’m going to ask you something now, and I need you to tell me the truth - did you orchestrate all this just to get out of making the seating chart?”

The laugh that escaped Peggy’s throat was choked but it _was_ a laugh and it was followed by another one and then another until she was laughing so hard she didn’t even notice that she’d started crying. Daniell put his arm under her shoulder and pulled her to his chest and held her as she cried for what felt like hours, but was probably only minutes. And when she finally stopped, he wiped the tears from her face and kissed her forehead and just kept holding her.

Eventually, Peggy felt her voice was strong enough to speak.

“Thank you,” she whispered into the night.

“For what?” he asked.

“For being you.”

There was a pause, pregnant in the dark. “I couldn’t be anyone else if I tried,” he said in that same joking tone, but she could hear the thread of tension in his voice all the same.

Peggy pushed herself up on her forearm and placed her left hand on his cheek. “And I would never want you to be. You know that, right?”

“I do,” he said, turning his head to kiss her palm. “But I appreciate you saying it all the same.”


	2. Chapter 2

When Steve woke up the next morning, there was considerably more sunlight peeking through the curtain than he’d been anticipating; he’d always been an early riser, and that hadn’t changed with the serum. He just needed less sleep now. Steve usually woke before dawn, so to look over and see that the clock said it was just before nine in the morning was something of a shock. 

He slipped out of the bedroom and into the bathroom, where he found a towel and a robe waiting for him. After using the facilities and grabbing a quick shower, he threw on the surprisingly comfortable robe and walked back into the hallway…

...where he ran right into Daniel Sousa.

“Um, good morning,” he stammered. Then, remembering Peggy’s comment from the night before, added, “Chief Sousa.”

Daniel raised his eyebrows and smiled lightly, the absurdity of the situation not lost on him. 

“You’re wearing my robe, Captain Rogers, I think you can call me Daniel.”

“Steve. Please.”

Daniel nodded, then jerked his head back towards the guest room. “There’s a clean set of clothes on your bed. Wasn’t sure how good laundry services were on the run, but figured you might appreciate the change.”

“I do. Thanks.” Steve bit his lip and tried to surreptitiously guess the other man’s size.

Daniel clearly noticed the attempt. 

“They’re not mine,” he laughed. “Jarvis brought over some things that should fit you first thing this morning.”

“Jarvis?” Even to his own ears, Steve sounded shocked by the name.

“Edwin Jarvis. Stark’s butler. Oh, wait, did you know him?”

Steve hesitated. “No, I, uh, never had the pleasure.”

“Ah. Well he’ll be back shortly. Peggy’s sent him on an errand.”

Steve nodded, feeling suddenly very awkward in his borrowed robe. “Well, I’ll just…” He gestured to his room.

“Oh, yeah, yeah of course. Sorry.” Daniel flattened himself against the hallway wall to let him pass, which Steve did as quickly as possible. He walked into the guest room, closed the door and took a deep breath.

“Ok. Ok…”

Steve dried his hair and changed into the clothes he found folded neatly on top of the blanket. Then he sat down on the edge of the bed with his hands on his knees and took a minute for himself. He knew he should get up, get moving, he’d already dallied too long, but he just needed a minute. Steve looked around, took in the cheery wallpaper, the bright curtains. It was certainly the most homey safehouse he’d ever been in. And that’s when it hit him. Why he had slept so soundly. Why he was dallying now.

He felt safe. 

And it had been _so long_.

Steve smiled. Of course he felt safe with Peggy. He always had. And even if all he got out of this visit was a week of genuine rest, he’d consider it a win.

He took another deep breath, stood up, and left his room. 

As he walked down the hallway, he could hear voices from the living room. Peggy and Daniel were obviously making plans for the day, plans to help him.

“I think we need to bring him in, Daniel.”

“Do we? Really?”

“He’s a brilliant scientist, Daniel.”

“He’s a pain in my ass, Peggy. And he’s the least discreet person I’ve ever met. If he doesn’t tell everyone about Captain America, he’ll definitely tell them about the time travel.”

“He’s signed the same confidentiality agreements that we all have. And he’s never said a word about Zero Matter, or Synergeen, or any of the other dozen insane things we’ve dealt with in the last two years. He’ll be fine.”

A loud and dramatic sigh from Daniel preceded a silence that Steve took advantage of, coming around the corner and making his presence known.

“Uh, hi. Good morning.”

Peggy looked up, a bright smile on her face. “Good morning, Steve! Did you sleep well?”

“I did actually. Best sleep I’ve had in years.”

“Oh, I’m so glad.”

“You’ve been busy,” Steve noted. There were several pages of papers on the living room table. Steve noticed that the wedding RSVPs had been unceremoniously dropped onto a side table and he felt a pang of guilt. Before he could say anything, though, Peggy was up and addressing him again.

“Indeed. Unfortunately, Howard is out of town and unreachable, but we do have access to his lab.”

“Peggy called Jarvis this morning and initiated Code Peggy,” Daniel explained, not really explaining anything at all.

“Code Peggy?” Steve asked.

“Basically if Howard is unavailable, Peggy gets whatever she wants.” Daniel shrugged. “Stark owes her.”

“Owes us,” she corrected him. “And I rarely take advantage, so it’s fine. In this case, we have access to his private lab in Malibu, his lead scientist there, his butler, and all his vehicles, research, and equipment until further notice.”

Steve was confused. “Why not work out of the SSR?”

Daniel and Peggy shared a look. She bit her lip, a nervous tell, and crossed her arms. “Given the… _sensitive_ nature of this problem, we felt it best to limit our team to people we were sure we could trust.”

“You’re afraid of a mole?” Steve asked.

“Or an over eager fan trying to prove something. Or a cash strapped lab tech looking to make a quick buck with the gossip rags,” Daniel added. “The point is, the more contained we can keep this, the better our chances of not causing a three ring circus now or totally messing up the future.” 

“Fair point. So what’s the plan?”

Peggy opened her mouth to answer, but was interrupted by a firm knock at the door. She instinctively drew her weapon while Daniel made his way to the window to peek outside. A subtle shake of his head to Peggy had her put away her gun and open the door.

A tall man in a three piece suit stood just outside, holding an enormous box.

“Good morning again, Miss Carter. Chief Sousa. I have the - ” 

He caught sight of Steve and dropped the box. “Good lord.”

Peggy took a quick step forward. “Edwin Jarvis, meet Captain Steve Rogers.”

Steve had to hand it to the man, he recovered quickly.

“A pleasure to meet you, Captain Rogers. Mr. Stark speaks very highly of you. As, of course, does Miss Carter.”

“Well, that’s just because Peg gets along with everyone,” Steve demurred.

Jarvis’ eyebrows rose then fell in a quick rhythm of quiet disagreement.

“Indeed.” He turned to Peggy and Daniel. “I found what you asked for in Mr. Stark’s research storage facility.” He gestured to the box. “This is everything he had on time travel. And I must say, for such an outlandish idea, it’s surprising he hasn’t looked into it more. This seems just the sort of thing to pique his interest.”

“Well we’ll just have to make do,” Peggy said.

Jarvis nodded. “And what is next on the agenda, Miss Carter?”

“Next, we get to work. I just need to collect some things from the SSR and then we’ll head over to the Malibu facility.”

“Very good. I’ll just wait in the car then.” He started to pick up the box, but Daniel stopped him. 

“You can leave that, Jarvis. Captain Rogers and I can take it with us when we head over.” 

Jarvis nodded again and quickly left the house to return to the car.

“You’re not coming with us?” Peggy asked in surprise.

Daniel shot a glance to Steve, then looked back at Peggy. “We’re trying to keep this quiet, Peg, I don’t think we should bring him to the SSR. I can drive both of us to Malibu as soon as Jason calls and gives the all clear.”

“Oh.” She seemed uncertain. “Perhaps you should go with Mr. Jarvis then, and I can drive Steve.”

“You gotta talk to Rose and Samberly, remember?”

“You could - ”

“Peggy.” Daniel’s tone was quiet, but firm. “It’s gotta be you. If this is gonna be off the books, the request can’t come from their supervisor. We agreed.”

Peggy nodded even as she looked hesitantly between the two men.

“We’ll be fine,” Daniel assured her. “Get the files, try to get the personnel, and meet us when you’re done.”

Peggy looked over at Steve, who shot her what he hoped was a reassuring smile. 

“Well, if you’re certain,” she said. She grabbed her purse, then absently leaned over to give Daniel a kiss goodbye. At the last moment she caught herself, though, and kissed his cheek instead of his lips. He raised his eyebrows a fraction, but didn’t say anything. Then, with one last anxious look at them both, she was gone.

Daniel shook his head and walked over to the table to begin gathering the papers they’d been working on that morning.

“I’m not sure what she’s worried will happen,” he said, more to himself than Steve.

“I think she’s worried we’ll fight or something,” Steve offered.

Daniel grunted softly. “Which is ridiculous because you’re not a jerk and I’m not insane.”

“How do you know? 

“That I’m not insane? Good point. Apparently phrases like ‘time travel technology from the future’ seem perfectly normal now, so there’s no way to be sure.”

Steve gave him an amused look. “I meant, how do you know that I’m not a jerk?”

“Because Peggy wouldn’t care nearly so much about you if you were.” Daniel said it like it was the most obvious thing in the world, and maybe it was, but it still shook something in Steve to hear.

He coughed to clear his throat which suddenly felt too thick, then walked over to help Daniel with the papers. “So what are we waiting for again?”

“Stark’s head scientist at the Malibu facility is a man named Dr. Jason Wilkes. He’s a good friend of ours and a legitimate genius. We gave him a vague idea of the problem - leaving your identity out of it for now - and he’s gonna help us, but he wants to clear the lab of all other personnel first. He’s calling here as soon as it’s done.”

“If he’s sending everyone away, will we have the manpower we need?” Steve asked, worried the necessary secrecy would undermine their best efforts at a solution.

“Well that’s what Peggy’s doing at the SSR now - trying to secure the rest of the cavalry.”

Steve put his hands on his hips and tilted his head in consideration. “Do you think they’ll agree? Asking your agents to keep something like this a secret won’t be an easy sell.”

“I’m not worried. These are good agents, they’ll do the right thing. Plus Peggy’s making the pitch, and they’re fiercely loyal to her. Really, she’s amazing, a born leader.” Daniel’s expression hovered somewhere between proud and fond, but when he glanced over at Steve, it became somewhat more discerning. “But you already know that, don’t you?”

“I do,” Steve agreed. “But I’m glad to hear you do as well.”

Daniel nodded at that, but otherwise did not respond.

A moment later the papers were all gathered in a briefcase, and Steve looked around the room for something else to do.

“You hungry?” Daniel asked, snapping the briefcase shut. “I got some terrible bagels I can offer you.”

“Well, with an offer like that,” Steve joked, surprised to realize he was actually starving. 

“I’ll go grab ‘em.” Before leaving for the kitchen, Daniel futzed with a radio in the corner until the sounds of a baseball game could be heard.

Steve took a seat at the newly cleared table, his eye drawn against his will to the RSVPs once more. It wasn’t a huge stack. They must be having a smaller wedding. That made sense. Neither Peggy nor Daniel seemed like the type to enjoy a lot of fuss. Only half listening to the sounds of the game, it took Steve a minute to realize that it was the Dodgers.

Daniel returned from the kitchen with the bagel, which Steve accepted gratefully.

“This okay?” Daniel asked, indicating the radio. “They have an early home game today, so I thought we could catch a few minutes before we have to go.”

“It’s fine with me.” Steve glanced at the clock. “9:30 in the morning - that’s awfully early for a ball game though.”

“Well it’s already 12:30 in New York.”

Steve ducked his head to hide the newly formed grimace on his face. _Idiot_, he thought, _the Dodgers are still in Brooklyn in ‘49! _He was irritated at himself, a little for almost sharing future information again, but mostly for forgetting such an important details about the Dodgers. His dad would have been so disappointed. 

He tried to play it off. “You get their home games in LA?”

Daniel pointed to the radio. “On this I do. Stark rigged it up special for me one year as a birthday present.”

“You a big Dodgers fan?” Steve asked.

“The biggest. It’s the thing I miss most about New York. Well, that and the bagels.”

Steve indicated the half-finished one in front of him and lied. “This isn’t so bad.”

“Uh huh,” Daniel said, utterly unconvinced.

Steve wolfed down the rest of the bagel and listened to the game as Daniel started looking through Stark’s box. The voice on the radio seemed so familiar…

“Is this Red Barber?” Steve asked, suddenly excited. “I haven’t heard him in ages!”

“It is,” Daniel confirmed. “You like the Dodgers too?”

“I’m from Brooklyn,” Steve reminded him.

“I thought it was Paramus,” Daniel said with a smile, not looking up from Stark’s notes.

“Peggy told you about that, huh?”

“She might have mentioned it.” 

Steve sat back and considered Daniel carefully. Sitting here, in his former best girl’s current fiance’s living room, Steve was a little surprised to realize how much he liked the guy. It’s not that he’d expected otherwise, it was just a strange thing to realize as a baseball game from 3,000 miles away and 74 years in the past played in the background. 

Then again, he texted with a racoon, so...

Steve kept listening to the game, the voice of an announcer he hadn’t heard in almost twenty years washing over him with a soothing familiarity. After a few minutes, Daniel still seemed preoccupied with the files, so Steve took his plate to the kitchen and got himself a glass of water while he was there. When he returned, Daniel still had papers in his hand, but didn’t seem to be paying any attention to them.

“Everything ok?” Steve asked.

Daniel was still looking down unseeing at the files. “Peggy’s told me a few stories, you know. But I have one of my own. You probably don’t remember this one out of so many, but I do.” Then he looked up at Steve, a strange sort of expression on his face. It reminded Steve of the look on a person’s face when they first flex muscles rarely used; he got the impression Daniel didn’t tell this story often.

“It was in Bastogne. Late 1944. A blizzard had trapped my battalion behind the German line. You and your guys, you, uh, you fought your way through a HYDRA blockade that had pinned us down for months. You saved us. Saved me.” He offered a wry smile and nodded towards his leg. “Well 3/4 of me anyway, which some folks might call lazy....” Steve snorted, which immediately made him feel terrible, but Daniel’s smile only grew. 

Yeah, he definitely liked the guy.

“Anyway, I never thought I’d have the opportunity, but now that I do, I wanted to say thank you.”

Steve shook his head. “I do remember Bastogne. And I was just doing what anyone would have done.”

“See, I’ve met a lot of ‘anyones’, Captain, and I actually know that’s not true.” He reached out his hand to shake Steve’s, who took it gladly. “So, on behalf of me and my guys - thank you.”

A little embarrassed, Steve nodded. “Well, then, you’re welcome.” 

Daniel let his hand drop and Steve did the same, stepping back to try and regain his equilibrium. Steve pointed to the box. “Anything I can help with there?”

“Not unless you speak megalomaniac. I swear, Howard Stark is the most ridiculous person I’ve ever met.” He held up a design of a hover car that Steve recognized from the _World Exposition Of Tomorrow_. “Stark posits that if this thing can go,” he checked the notes on the diagram, “88 miles per hour, he can achieve optimum velocity for time travel.” Daniel snorted. “Nevermind that he still hasn’t gotten a hover car to work since ‘47.”

“He got one to work?” Steve asked in surprise.

“Yeah, but we had to… you know, I should probably be nicer about the car.”

Steve was about to ask what he meant, but just then the phone rang. Daniel moved over to turn off the radio and answer it. “Daniel Sousa. Oh hi, Jason. All done? Great, we’ll be right there.”

Daniel picked up the briefcase off the table. “That was Dr. Wilkes. The lab is all ready, so if you could just grab that,” he gestured to the box, “we can get going.” Daniel frowned and looked around. 

“You lose something?” Steve asked.

“My keys. I always put them in the same place, and Peggy always moves them. I swear she’s like a cat…” 

He looked under a few things before inspiration hit and he moved to the side table, casually shoving the RSVPs over and emerging victorious with his keys. “Aha!” Daniel started to move over to the door, but Steve paused his actions with a hand on his forearm.

“Thank you,” he said.

“For what?” Daniel asked.

“For… everything. For opening your home to me. For disrupting your lives.” Steve smiled softly. “For the comfortable robe and the crappy bagel.” Daniel looked like he was about to argue, but Steve put a hand up to stop him and continued.

“I’ve met a lot of anyones too, Chief, and this is a lot. So thank you.”

Daniel smiled in understanding, and gestured once again to the box. “Come on, Captain, time to get you back to the future.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Look, Howard’s inspired a lot of movies, ok? And also I… couldn’t help myself. Sorry, McFly! ;-)
> 
> Walter Lanier "Red" Barber was an American sports commentator who called play-by-play for the Brooklyn Dodgers on the radio from 1939–1953. He was an institution in New York.


	3. Chapter 3

From the passenger seat of an absurdly expensive car, Peggy absently considered her surroundings. Tilting her head up a bit to catch the light, she determined it really was an objectively lovely day; the sun was shining, there was a breeze blowing in from the sea, and the first five minutes of their drive to the SSR were mercifully silent. 

And then they weren’t.

“Well...” Jarvis began in that tone of voice he used when he was pretending like he wasn’t overstepping the boundaries of their friendship. 

Then again, with all they’d been through, maybe there were no more boundaries anymore.

Peggy sighed. “Yes, Mr. Jarvis? Do you have something you wish to say?”

“Actually, Miss Carter, I was simply going to ask if _you_ had anything _you_ wished to say.”

“Ah. Well I don’t.” Peggy put her sunglasses on and hoped that would be the end of it.

It wasn’t.

“Miss Carter, the unexpected return of Captain Rogers is a shock for us all, and for none more than you. That it has happened mere weeks from your upcoming nuptials to Chief Sousa could be understandably… overwhelming, for anyone. I am merely offering a friendly ear to listen, should you wish to talk.”

Peggy stared out the window. “I just need to concentrate on the mission right now.”

“Of course.” Jarvis made a turn, pulled the car up to the Auerbach Theatrical Agency, and stopped the car. “I would just ask, as you concentrate on the mission, that you remember that I am at your disposal, as a colleague, as a resource, and, above all, as your friend.”

Peggy removed her sunglasses and looked over at the man next to her. “Thank you, Mr. Jarvis,” she said quietly. “I appreciate that. This has been a… strange day.”

“Indeed. And I expect it will only get stranger.”

“The story of our lives, Mr. Jarvis.”

“That it is, Miss Carter. Now, would you like me to wait with the car or join you inside?”

“I might be a while, best to join me inside, I think.”

They exited the vehicle, then walked into the cover agency and greeted the agent on duty.

“Good morning, Rose.”

Rose smiled at Peggy, then noticed Jarvis behind her and frowned minutely, narrowing her eyes in mild alarm. “Morning, Peg. Everything ok? I thought you and the Chief were coming in together.”

Peggy always laughed when the other agents underestimated Rose - the woman was sharp as a tack.

“We’re fine, but there’s been a small change of plans. Would you mind terribly collecting Dr. Samberly and meeting me in the records room?”

Rose still looked worried, but nodded. “Let me just get a replacement to watch the front desk.”

“Thank you, Rose. I’ll see you downstairs.”

With a small wave goodbye, Peggy and Jarvis left and made their way to the records room. 

The Los Angeles records room was smaller than its twin in New York, but still well stocked. A thin layer of dust covered most of the boxes - so far old research hadn’t been needed in Los Angeles as much as it had been in New York.

“What are we looking for, Miss Carter?”

Peggy put a finger up to her lips and shook her head. Then she removed a small, electronic box from her purse and swept for bugs. The entire SSR was routinely checked for listening devices, but given what she was about to say in here, Peggy figured it didn’t hurt to double check.

Finding nothing, she returned it to her purse and turned back to Javis. Then she pulled a piece of paper from her purse and finally answered his question. “We’re looking for anything on quantum mechanics or quantum field theory.”

Jarvis blinked. “So the Q-R boxes then?”

“Quite.”

Fifteen minutes later they had a disappointingly small stack of papers set aside, which Peggy hoped against hope would hold the key to getting Steve home. There was a quick knock on the door and then a worried Rose and an annoyed Samberly entered. Peggy gestured for them to close the door.

“Thank you both for coming. What I’m about to say is both confidential and off the record. If that bothers either of you, you are welcome to leave now, and there will be no hard feelings.”

Rose looked resolute. Samberly just looked irritated.

He crossed his arms and sighed. “Fine. But this had better be important, Agent Carter, I was in the middle of testing a new long-wave radio.”

“I think this might top that, Dr. Samberly, but I leave that up to you. Last night, I was contacted by a former member of the SSR I knew from the war. He is,” Peggy paused, unsure how to best explain, “deep cover, and in need of our assistance. This assignment is highly classified, of the greatest importance, and needs to be kept top secret. It’s not going too far to say the fate of the world rests on this. As does the life of the agent. He’s a friend, and I am asking for your help - what do you say?”

“Peg, you had me at ‘confidential and off the record,” Rose assured her. 

“Thank you, Rose. And you, Dr. Samberly?”

Samberly grimaced. “Not that I don’t enjoy risking my life for another unapproved assignment, but what’s in it for me? Scientifically, I mean.”

“If all goes well, Dr. Samberly? Unlocking the key to time travel.”

The man almost tripped over his feet running to the car.

\---------------------

When Daniel pulled his car up to Stark’s Malibu facility, Steve felt the air rush out of his lungs. 

This was Tony’s house.

Oh, it wasn’t the same house, of course. Several decades of remodeling and innovating and small explosions had seen to that. But it was the same winding road to the same basic location of the same general structure.

And it felt so very _familiar_.

Daniel must have noticed the change in Steve’s mood, because he shot a worried glance across the car. “You ok?”

“Yeah. Yeah, I just… I’ve been here before.”

“Oh.” Daniel was quiet for a moment. “The other Stark?” he asked.

“Yeah. But let’s just keep that between us for now, ok?”

“Fine by me. I’m not even sure I understand enough to share,” Daniel admitted, parking the car and grabbing his crutch to exit. He led Steve up to the main entrance and rang the doorbell. A minute or so later a tall, black man in a white lab coat opened the door, then crossed his arms and leveled a look at Daniel.

“Alright, everyone else is cleared out and it’s just me. Now, do you mind explaining what _exactly_ the big emergency is?”

Daniel cleared his throat and subtly nodded his head at Steve.

The doctor’s jaw dropped.

Daniel bit back a smile and made introductions. “Dr. Jason Wilkes, meet Captain Steve Rogers.”

Steve extended his hand. “Pleased to meet you, Doctor.”

Jason just nodded slowly for several long seconds before extending his own hand and remembering how to speak.

“Yes. Thank you. Me as well. About you.” He sighed. “Sorry, this is… a surprise, to say the least.” Suddenly his eyes widened and he shot a worried look at Daniel, who just shrugged.

“Peggy will be here soon with Jarvis and, hopefully, additional help. Maybe we should wait inside until then?”

Jason nodded and ushered them both through the front door, and as Steve entered, he looked around. It was more laboratory than house right now, though he could see how the home he knew from memory would fit. After pausing briefly in the foyer, Jason led them into the kitchen, extremely modern by 1949 standards, and offered them both coffee.

“Yeah, that’d be great,” Daniel said, taking a seat.

“Same,” Steve added.

Jason nodded and started playing around with a machine in the corner.

“Is that an espresso machine?” Steve asked, trying to remember if they had been around in the 1940s or if this was a new Stark invention.

“Yeah, Stark just got it. Most up to date version on the market. Apparently these type hardly ever explode,” Jason assured them, to which Daniel rolled his eyes.

“Good to know,” he muttered.

A few minutes later all three men were enjoying coffee around the kitchen table and making vague small talk, until Steve asked Jason how he knew Daniel and Peggy. The scientist got a grim look on his face, but nevertheless gamely shared a story involving Isodyne Energy, Zero Matter, homicidal actresses and weeks of incorporealness that left Steve stunned.

“So that’s basically how we met,” Jason finished.

“Black space goo?” Steve asked.

Daniel shrugged. “It was an interesting summer.”

“Sounds like it.” Steve could tell they were leaving some things out, but also knew it wasn’t his place to pry. “And now you work here?”

“And now I work here. Howard Stark and I are trying to develop new energy sources. _Safe_ energy sources,” he clarified. “It’s slow going, but we’ve made some progress.”

Steve nodded and finished his drink. The three men looked at each other, but didn’t say anything for a few moments until Jason suddenly sat up straighter as if struck by a thought.

“Oh, Daniel, I almost forgot! I had an idea about the bachelor party. What do you think about - ” Jason stopped himself in the middle of his question and looked nervously between the two other men. “Um, that is…”

“It’s alright, Dr. Wilkes, I know they’re getting married,” Steve said quietly. 

“Right. Of course.” Jason quickly finished his drink and stood. “Let me just…” he gestured to the sink and took all three cups over to rinse. His back turned to the other two, he spoke absently to the room. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to make things…”

“Awkward?” Daniel finished. “It’s fine, Jason. This whole situation is crazy, and we’re all just doing the best we can.” 

A moment later, Jarvis’ voice coming from the direction of the complex’s front door caught all their attentions. Daniel was the first to move, grabbing his crutch and making his way to the kitchen doorway. Before he left, though, he turned back to the room with a slightly devilish grin on his face. 

“You want awkward, though, you can tell Captain America here how you kissed Peggy before I did.”

And then he was gone. Steve turned his attention back to the man at the sink, who suddenly looked very, very uncomfortable.

“Is that so?” Steve asked, crossing his arms and trying not to laugh at the man’s expression.

“I…” Jason threw down the dish towel and made a beeline for the door.

“Not helpful, Daniel!” he yelled as he briskly followed the other man out.

Steve laughed. This whole situation _was_ crazy, but, at least he was enjoying the company. He stood and followed the other two men to the entryway.

\---------------------

Jarvis opened the front door for the group, asked everyone to wait a moment, and then stood aside so Peggy could enter first. She did a quick sweep of the entrance, then gestured for the other three to join her. Jarvis was just closing the door when Daniel made his way into the foyer.

“Hey Peg. I see you brought the calvary,” he said, moving over to stand next to her.

“Indeed. And some light reading on quantum mechanics, for all the good it will do us.” She saw Jason enter the room, and, behind him and keeping out of eyesight for the most part, Steve. “Hello, Jason. Looks like everyone’s here. Why don’t all of you head down to the lab and I will escort our guest?”

A sea of nods met her request and everyone began making their way to the underground lab that was set into the cliff itself. Peggy hung back and waited until they were out of sight to call Steve. “You can come out now.”

“I wasn’t hiding,” he said, a little defensively, which she found funny for some reason. “I just didn’t know how much you’d told them and didn’t want to surprise anyone.”

“Well reasoned, though I imagine it will be a surprise no matter how we tell them.” She gestured to the stairs. “Shall we?”

Picking up the box of Stark’s files, Steve followed her down to the lab where the others were gathered, all seated around a large table. She took a deep breath and entered. “Thank you all for coming. I apologize again for all the secrecy, but I think the reason why will become evident in a moment.” She nodded at Steve who entered the room and stood next to her. She had expected a collective gasp, but aside from Rose’s eyes widening, no one reacted. 

Strange day indeed.

“Well, now that we’re all gathered, I will let Captain Rogers explain what we need to do.” She sat down beside Daniel, who took her hand under the table. 

“Thanks Peggy.” Steve took a seat at the table as well and proceeded to tell the group assembled the same story he’d told Peggy and Daniel the night before, leaving out the specifics about Bucky. When he finished, the room was silent.

After a moment, Rose was the first to speak. “So… time travel is real?”

“Yes, though highly problematic, as you can see,” Steve said.

Samberly frowned. “And you expect the two of us,” he gestured between himself and Jason, “to just figure it out. In a week?”

“Not just the two of you,” Peggy said, as she placed the SSR files on the table, as Steve did the same with Stark’s. “Here is all the information we’ve collected on time travel and quantum mechanics from both the SSR and Howard’s archives.”

“I’ve also got a call into the New York office to see if they can send us anything they have,” Daniel added. 

“Hmph,” Samberly grunted. “I’m sorry, Captain… Rogers, was it?”

Six pairs of eyes turned to look at him in surprise.

“What?” he asked.

“You… you don’t know who this is?” Rose asked.

Samberly shrugged defensively. “I don’t know _every_ SSR agent, Rose.”

“No, of course not.” Rose glanced at the rest of the room meaningfully. “And it was ridiculous of us to think you would.”

_Well that’s one problem solved_, Peggy thought.

Rose turned back to Samberly. “Now, you were saying,” she encouraged him.

“Right, as I was saying, Captain Rogers, can I see your… what did you call it?”

“A Space-Time GPS,” Steve said, handing it over, somewhat reluctantly.

“Right. Ridiculous name. Anyway, this is unlike anything I’ve ever seen. Dr. Wilkes?” He passed it to Jason, who shook his head. 

“Me either, I’m afraid.”

“Right, so we're supposed to just fix this thing, when we don’t know anything about it, including how or why it works?” Samberly stood up. “I’m sorry Agent Carter. Chief. It can’t be done.” And, to his credit, he did sound a little sorry about it.

Everyone was silent for a moment, all conceding that Samberly did indeed have a point. Even Daniel refrained from offering a cutting statement in response. But they still needed him. With Howard gone, their only other resident genius was Jason, and Peggy knew from experience that in matters of experimental science, two minds were better than one. She opened her mouth to speak, to try and convince him to help, but Rose beat her to it.

She placed a hand on Samberly’s forearm and gently but firmly pulled him back down to the table. “Aloysius, if it can’t be done it, it can’t be done. But if you don’t even try… well then you’re not the scientist, not the agent, not the _man_, I thought you were.”

Samberly gaped for a moment, Rose’s words reverberating around the table, then squared his shoulders and grabbed the tech back from Wilkes. “Well, I guess we can _try_.”

“That’s the spirit,” Rose encouraged, and smiled over at Peggy, who gratefully smiled back.

“Alright,” Peggy said, “let’s get to work.”

A few minutes later, roles had been assigned and jobs divided. Jason and Samberly would examine the device while Peggy, Rose and Steve scoured the files looking for anything relevant. Jarvis would continue to try and track down Howard, and Daniel would return to the SSR, as he still had an office to run, especially now that Rose and Peggy were reassigned.

“I’ll be back around seven to pick you up,” Daniel told her as he made to leave. “Call me if anything new comes up before that?”

Peggy nodded, opening the front door for him. “I’ll see you then,” she said, worrying her engagement ring in her left hand as she waved goodbye with her right.

When she closed the door, Rose was standing beside her. She gave Peggy a knowing smile.

“So Peg… what’s new?”

Peggy laughed and then didn’t object at all as Rose pulled her into a hug. As she let go, she looked Peggy in the eye.

“Really though, how are you holding up?”

“I’m fine,” Peggy told her, calling upon every ounce of her stiff upper lip background to keep her voice steady.

“Peg,” Rose’s voice was kind, but firm. “Besides you, I probably know better than anyone what it’s like being a woman in this job. But having an emotional reaction to an... old friend, returning from the dead, isn’t being ‘soft’ or ‘hysterical’; it’s being human.”

Peggy straightened her jacket and broke the too perceptive eye contact. “Yes, well, then you also know better than anyone that as women we don’t have the luxury of being human in this job.”

“We do with our friends. You do with me.”

Peggy nodded, quickly dashing a traitorous tear from the corner of her eye. She suddenly felt so tired, with so much still to do, and maybe she really could just use a moment of relief.

“Thank you. I…” Peggy hesitated, then sat down on the foyer bench, as Rose sat down beside her. “I thought he was _dead_.”

“We all did. Everyone.”

“Yes, well _everyone_ wasn’t the last person to speak with him, now were they? _Everyone_ didn’t do a woefully inadequate job of looking for him. _Everyone_ didn’t fail him.”

“Oh Peggy… you didn’t fail him. You both got dealt a lousy hand. And you did the best you could. You both did.”

Peggy was quiet for a moment. “He trusted me,” she said softly.

“He still does,” Rose assured her. “It why he literally showed up at your doorstep when he didn’t know what else to do. Steve Rogers doesn’t blame you in the least. Maybe it’s time you stopped blaming yourself.”

Peggy took a deep breath. “I will… do my best.”

“That’s all I ask. I think it’s probably all Steve asks as well.” 

Peggy nodded, committing herself to really trying to do as her friend asked. 

“And speaking of the good Captain,” Rose added, in a totally new tone of voice and with an exaggerated waggle of her eyebrows for good measure, “can I just say, you have _excellent_ taste in men?”

Peggy laughed abruptly, delightfully shocked by the sentiment. The twinkle in Rose’s eye was charming and she was so, so grateful for her in that moment.

“I do, don’t I?” she replied. She stood and held out her hand to help Rose up. “Come on, enough being human - let’s get back to work.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

And so they did.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The history of espresso coffee makers (as I recently discovered) is long and varied, but for the purposes of this chapter, in 1935 the first automatic espresso coffee maker was invented that used compressed air instead of steam. The (very real) problem of exploding espresso coffee makers was solved by this machine and gave a more stable result.
> 
> Daniel remains skeptical.


	4. Chapter 4

As promised, Daniel arrived a little before seven to collect Peggy and Steve from the lab. He brought with him a bag of takeout for everyone else, which Jarvis took from him to plate. As he did, Daniel caught his arm to stop him. 

“Any news from Howard?” he asked. His voice was low, but not so low that Steve missed hearing it from his perch in the corner where he was reading yet another paper on quantum mechanics.

Jarvis shook his head. “I’m afraid not, sir. I’ve tried all the usual methods, plus several unusual ones, and I have yet to hear anything back. It seems Mr. Stark is well and truly unreachable at the moment.”

Daniel nodded absently and walked over to Peggy to discuss something else, leaving Steve alone with his thoughts. 

He was… conflicted, over Howard’s absence. On the one hand, he missed his old friend, wanted to see him, wanted to laugh with him again. And there was no denying he would be invaluable to the project - whatever else you could (and probably should) say about Howard Stark, the man was a genius. But Steve was also worried. Worried that with Howard, more than anyone else, he would be unable to stay silent. He was worried he’d shout at him to be a better father, warn him about the car accident that was anything but, plead with him to abandon the search for Steve that would become something of an obsession.

Howard on his own was complicated enough. Adding time travel to the equation was maybe more than Steve could handle.

Peggy’s hand on his arm brought Steve out of his musings. 

“Daniel and I are going to head home now, see if we can track down some leads by phone tonight. Are you ready?”

“I am,” he said, putting the paper back in the box and grabbing his jacket and the time travel device - he was unwilling to leave it out of sight overnight.

Peggy moved to say goodbye to Rose and Samberly while Daniel spoke with Jarvis and Jason.

When they were done, Steve took his cue from them, following Daniel and Peggy as they walked upstairs and outside.

“The others aren’t leaving?” he asked.

“Soon,” Peggy said. “Dr. Samberly and Dr. Wilkes are going to look over the papers we flagged today and Rose is providing protection just in case. Jarvis will take everyone home in a few hours.”

“You’re the boss,” Steve said, and heard Daniel try to stifle a laugh next to him.

Apparently Peggy also heard, because she audibly huffed. “Do you have something you wish to say, _Chief_?”

“No ma'am, I do not. I got this far by keeping my trap shut in dangerous situations, thanks very much.”

“Mmmm,” Peggy replied, but Steve could hear the fondness in her tone and could see the way her hand found his in the dark.

He averted his eyes and settled himself in the backseat, trying hard not to think too much about either observation.

The drive home was all business, Peggy and Steve filling Daniel in on what they’d found during the day, which was, sadly, not much. When they arrived at the house, Daniel grabbed a bag of take out from the trunk and led the trio inside.

“I’m afraid this has got a bit cold,” Daniel said apologetically. “I can heat it up on the stove real quick though.”

“Thanks, Daniel, that would be great,” Steve told him, trying to sound as grateful as he felt.

“I’ll make some tea while you do,” Peggy said, following Daniel into the kitchen.

Left alone in the living room, Steve didn’t know what to do. He didn’t want to snoop, but he didn’t want to stare at the wall either. He finally settled on looking at the photos on the mantelpiece. Most of the people were new to him, probably Daniel’s relatives if he had to guess. But there were two photos with faces that were not. One was clearly of Peggy’s family, as Steve immediately recognized the brother she’d shown him a picture of once after Bucky… after Bucky fell. The other was of all the Howling Commandos, himself included, taken before the fall. Peggy wasn’t in it, she’d been the one to snap the photo he remembered, but everyone in it was reacting to her. Smiling, joking. She’d said something inappropriate that had made them all laugh. Looking at his own, much younger face, he could see how in love with her he’d been. He ran a hand over his face now, the same but different. He wondered if that meant something.

He was startled out of his introspection by the shrill ring of the telephone. He waited a moment for Daniel or Peggy to come out of the kitchen, but either they couldn’t hear it or they were otherwise occupied, and, afraid they might miss a call from Jarvis or one of the others, moved to answer it himself.

“Sousa household, uh…” He thought quickly. “Grant speaking.” Steve listened for a minute, furrowed his brow, then put his hand over the receiver. “Yes, just hold on.” He called loudly into the kitchen. “Do either of you know a ‘Marge’?”

“Bloody Norah,” Peggy muttered coming out of the kitchen with Daniel laughing as he followed her. She held up her hand and Steve handed her the phone, then retreated to the far corner of the room to give her a little privacy. 

“Hello, Jack.” Her eyes darted over to Steve. “Just a friend in town for the wedding. Did you find it?” There was a pause. “Oh, brilliant, thank you!” Another pause. “No. No. He said _no_, Jack.” A deep sigh, then she waved her hand at Daniel, calling him over. “And he can tell you once again himself.” She handed the phone to Daniel.

“Hi Jack.” Another pause, and an eye roll from Daniel. “Look, I’ll tell you what I told Stark - there’s a _reason_ I put Jason in charge of the bachelor party, and it’s because you two idiots can’t be trusted.” He glanced over to Peggy. “Maybe you should plan Peg’s hen party instead - I got a feeling she’d appreciate your ideas more than I would.” Peggy stuck her tongue out at Daniel and he grinned at her in response. 

Steve watched them, feeling simultaneously like he was intruding on something personal and also that he was incredibly privileged to be there. She was happy, _they_ were happy. And, even though that little pang he got whenever he thought of what they might have had might never go away, what he felt most right then was peace.

“Yes, Jack. Alright. Thanks again for the files. We’ll see you next week.”

He hung up the phone.

“Do I even want to know?” Peggy asked.

“Probably not. But if you see a cake that looks like a person could fit in it, it might be best not to cut into it.”

“Noted.”

Daniel winked at her then returned to the kitchen, and Peggy waved for Steve to follow. Once inside he helped her set out plates and cups, and she explained the phone call.

“That was our friend, Jack, who heads the New York SSR. He’s couriered over some documents he thinks might be of interest. He’s put a rush on them, so they should be here sometime tomorrow afternoon.”

“Why doesn’t he just - ” Steve stopped himself before the word “email” escaped his lips. Honestly, having to monitor everything he said for anachronisms was getting exhausting. He hadn’t thought going back to the past - to his own time for god’s sake - would be such an adjustment, but it was. It hadn’t been, at first. When he was on his own, and avoiding people for the most part, none of this had really mattered. But now that he was having actual conversations again, interacting instead of just existing, he was beginning to wonder more and more if the real anachronism was him. He forced a smile on his face. “Great, that’s great.”

“Every little bit,” Daniel said, putting the food - some kind of pasta - onto plates. “And I think we can use all the friends we can get at this point.”

“Yeah,” Steve agreed. “We sure can.”

Dinner was pleasant, though hurried, and afterwards Peggy and Daniel excused themselves to make some calls, so Steve turned in for an early night. When he woke up the next morning it was still dark, so he went for a long run. The physical exertion felt good, and he returned to the house around seven feeling refreshed. He was surprised, however, to run into Daniel on his way out. 

“Heading into the office so early?” Steve asked.

“Uh, physical therapy actually,” Daniel explained. He sounded almost apologetic. “I’d skip it, but I’ll be more help later if I don’t.”

“No, of course, sorry.” Steve didn’t really know what he was apologizing for, but he felt he should nonetheless.

“Rose will be by in about an hour to collect you and Peggy,” Daniel added. “And I’ll join you all at the lab as soon as those New York files arrive.”

“Great, thanks… and, uh, good luck. With the PT.” 

Daniel gave him a rueful smile. “I think if I’d been lucky, I wouldn’t be going in the first place” 

“No, sure, I just mean…” Steve ran a hand through his hair, feeling slightly awkward. “I had that a bit, you know.”

“What?”

“Physical therapy. Of a kind anyway. When I was younger. I had scoliosis, among… among other things. Eventually they sort of gave up on me, but I, uh, I tried. For a while.”

“Oh. Right.”

“So I guess I just mean, I hope it’s better today than yesterday.”

“Yeah,” Daniel said. “Thanks.” He started to walk towards his car, but Steve called out to stop him.

“I disagree though,” he said.

Daniel turned back, a questioning look on his face. “About what?”

“About you not being lucky.” Steve nodded his head towards the house behind him and everything, _everyone_, in it. “I think you’re very lucky.”

Daniel was quiet for a moment, looking more thoughtful than anything else. “You know, Peggy told me the same thing once.” He looked over and threw a small but genuine smile at Steve. “And, scoliosis or not, I don’t think I can take both of you on at once.” 

Steve huffed a laugh at that, which Daniel acknowledged with a slight tilt of his head. Then he nodded goodbye to Steve, and continued on to his car.

Steve watched him drive away until the car was well out of view, then turned and walked inside, ready to start the day.

\---------------------

Peggy looked around the lab and worried at her bottom lip; there was a palpable air of frustration in the room and she didn’t know quite what to do about it.

“It’s unlike anything I’ve ever seen,” Jason had said when Peggy, Steve and Rose had arrived that morning. “And, based on all the research we’ve acquired so far, it’s unlike anything _anyone_ has ever seen.”

“So what are we doing?” Peggy had asked. “What _can_ we do going forward?” She could sympathize with their position, but simply bemoaning the lack of useful information wouldn’t help solve the problem. 

“We’d like to examine the device again,” Jason had said. “See if we might have missed something.”

Peggy had looked over at Steve who had furrowed his brow, but handed it over all the same. Then he’d moved over to the stool in the corner of the room to sit vigil.

That had been hours ago.

Yesterday, the scientists had been optimistic, excited even, to tackle such an extraordinary problem. But they had literally made no progress in the last 24 hours and the excitement was morphing into disappointment and irritation. 

By three in the afternoon, Steve and Samberly were basically yelling at each other while Rose and Jason attempted to referee. 

Peggy was just about to step in with a more aggressive form of arbitration when she heard Jarvis usher Daniel downstairs, holding a package from the New York SSR.

Walking into the room, both men stopped beside her and took in the scene.

“We need to look inside!” Samberly yelled. 

Steve, for his part, was clearly trying not to raise his voice, but Peggy knew that look and he was very much on the edge. 

“You’ll destroy it,” he practically growled.

“Which one of us has the PhDs here? I think I know how to handle sensitive material.”

“But it’s unnecessary. I’ve told you how it works, you don’t need to - ”

“With all due respect, Captain Muscles, you don’t _know_ how it works.”

Steve gripped the edge of the table. _Hard_. “Samberly, I swear…”

Daniel nudged Peggy with his elbow. “See,” he hissed. “It’s not just me.”

Peggy shushed him and turned her attention back to the argument.

Steve took a deep breath and continued. “If you pry it open, how do you plan to put it back together? You’ve said yourself it looks seamless. What exactly are you opening?”

“If we don’t get more data, we might as well pack up now!” Samberly countered. Loudly.

“He’s not wrong though,” Jason agreed at a more reasonable volume. “We don’t have enough data, Captain. We need to do _something_.”

“Precisely.” And with that Samberly grabbed a screwdriver and the device and made to open it. Steve almost flew across the room to stop him, but skidded to a halt when an image appeared in the air. 

It was a man. A man in all black, with sunglasses, hovering above the ground. It reminded her of when Jason had become incorporeal during the Zero Matter affair, or perhaps if a movie was somehow able to project without a screen. The man’s appearance had stopped everyone in the room in their tracks, no one sure exactly what was happening.

And then the image spoke.

“Hi there. So it seems one of you has broken their very complicated doohickey and is now attempting to ‘fix it’ with something sharp. My money’s on Bug Boy, but it doesn’t really matter. Lucky for you, I prepared for this possibility. So stop touching it, ok? The system will run an automatic diagnostic… now.”

The image vanished as suddenly as it had appeared, but the device was whirring now.

“What the hell was _that_?” Daniel asked no one in particular.

“It’s a recording,” Steve said quietly.

Peggy glanced in his direction and was surprised to see that he suddenly looked profoundly sad.

“Of who?” she asked softly, feeling as though the man in the recording seemed familiar somehow. Which was patently ridiculous, and yet...

Steve swallowed. “A friend. That is… that was the man who built these.”

“The engineer?” Peggy clarified and Steve nodded, taking a ragged breath and running a hand over his chin.

The whirring continued, and Daniel took advantage of the moment to shoot Steve an incredulous look. “You work with someone named ‘Bug Boy’?”

“No, of course not,” Steve said emphatically. Then he seemed to think about it some more. “Well…” he said, tilting his head and raising his eyebrows as his voice lilted up a bit.

Daniel shook his head. “The future is weird.”

The man in black reappeared. “Ok, the diagnostic program has identified the problem and can provide you with instructions on how to fix it. As a security measure, there’s an audio code to have that information appear. The device has been set to our ten voice prints, so any of us can access it. And let’s make the code, oh I don’t know, ‘_thank you, Tony._' That seems about right.”

Peggy looked at the man, still so familiar though she’d obviously never met him, and then back at Steve. 

Suddenly she gasped and put a hand to her mouth. Steve looked over at her and nodded, just once.

The man continued. “Hopefully that’s enough to help you get back on track. Good luck - we’re counting on you.”

And then he was gone.

The room was silent for a moment. Then Steve walked over to the device and picked it up. Quiently, his voice thick with emotions Peggy could feel from where she stood, he spoke into it.

“Thank you, Tony.”

Suddenly the air was filled with the screenless images, schematics of the device as well as invaluable instructions. Samberly and Jason ran over and began looking through it all.

“This… this is it. This is what we needed!” Jason exclaimed, sounding as excited as she’d ever heard him.

Samberly was too busy making notes on the images to add anything, but he nodded in agreement all the same.

That was, as it turned out, the tipping point.

The endeavor began in earnest then, as the two scientists put their heads together to come up with a workable solution given their period-specific tools. In the end they were aided, surprisingly, by none other than an in absentia Howard Stark - the files sent over from New York contained information Stark had had in his vault three years ago on something called “the quantum realm.”

From then on, the days were busy and focused. Daniel would run the SSR office during the day while the rest of the team worked out of the lab, arriving sometime in the evening to bring food and help as best he could. They would stay as late as possible - Steve still didn’t want the device out of his sight - before returning home and starting up again at dawn the next day. 

The schedule was grueling, and by the fifth day everyone was feeling it. So when Daniel arrived a little after four that afternoon, he immediately went into Chief-mode, ordering everyone to take the night off. 

“I don’t care what you do, as long as you find it relaxing and it’s not here,” he said sternly. “Tomorrow’s our last day to get this right and everyone needs to be at their best.” Then he made his way over to Jarvis for a quick word. When he returned, he handed Peggy the keys to one of Stark’s cars. “Jarvis and I are going to take everyone else home. You take Steve.”

Before she could argue, he had walked away again, this time to let the rest of the team know the plan. Alone and holding the keys to a very expensive Cadillac, Peggy quietly panicked.

It wasn’t that she and Steve had been avoiding each other; in fact, they’d been together almost every moment since he’d arrived. It’s just that they’d rarely been alone together, and even when they were it wasn’t for very long. When Daniel made his way back to her to ask what she wanted for dinner, Peggy made to argue. 

“Why don’t Steve and I come with you? I’m sure it will be more expedient that way.”

Daniel leveled a look at her, his “I know what you’re doing and it won’t work” special. 

“Peg, if all goes well, Steve will be going home tomorrow. This is your last chance to talk to him. If you don’t take it, I think we both know you’ll regret it.”

Peggy was silent for a moment, but Daniel didn’t press her. Eventually she sighed. “I don’t know what to say,” she admitted softly.

“You’ll think of something,” he assured her. Then he took her hand and gave her knuckles a quick kiss. “Now, I am taking Rose home and then picking up dinner from Greenblatt's Deli.”

“That’s across town,” she noted.

“It is,” he confirmed meaningfully. “And with traffic it will take me quite a while, probably two or three hours at least. So stop running from whatever conversation you need to have with him and just have it. You’re Peggy ‘Stubborn as a Goddamn Mule’ Carter, and you don’t run from anything.”

Peggy rolled her eyes, but squeezed his hand all the same. Then, in the lightest tone of voice she could muster, added, “Daniel Sousa, you are too good for this world.”

He shook his head. “Naw, just trying to keep up with you, sweetheart. And you don’t make it easy.”

“You wouldn’t want it any other way.”

“No, I would not.”

“I love you,” she said.

“I love you too. Now go.”

Smiling, more nervous than she would have liked, but smiling all the same, Peggy left him and walked over to Steve. “Ready?” she asked. At his nod they left the lab and walked outside together.


	5. Chapter 5

The drive home was quiet and quick and before she knew it, Peggy was pulling up to the small house she shared with Daniel and letting Steve inside.

Neither seemed to know what to say, though, so she offered to make tea; it was the most British way she knew to handle an awkward silence, and she found it comforting. Steve, of course, saw right through it, but thanked her nonetheless. He followed her into the kitchen and took a seat at the table.

“You know, I never saw you make tea during the war.”

“No?”

“Yeah, which always surprised me,” he admitted. “I thought that was a prerequisite for being English.”

She laughed lightly as she steeped the leaves. “Well, I rarely had the time or the tea. Mostly it was that horrible packaged coffee.”

Steve chuckled. “Oh I remember. I just think it’s interesting that I’ve seen you make tea about 20 times in the last week, which is 20 times more than I ever did in the two years we knew each other.”

“Well so much has changed since then. The war… it feels like a different life sometimes. And I suppose we’re neither of us the same people we were. You perhaps more so. The things you’ve seen, Steve…”

He nodded in agreement. “Mmmm. You know I’ve been to space?”

“After everything you’ve told me that really shouldn’t surprise me. And yet…” She shook her head in wonderment, then turned around to pour the tea. “Is it nice?” she asked.

“Space?” Steve shrugged. “It is when no one’s shooting at you.”

Peggy smiled to herself. “So just like Earth, then.”

“More or less.”

Peggy moved back to the table, two cups of tea in hand.

“How do you take yours?” she asked, realizing quite suddenly she had no idea.

“A little milk. If you have some.”

“We do. I drink mine with milk and sugar, so Daniel makes sure there’s always some in the refrigerator.” She moved to get both and bring them back to the table.

Steve was quiet for a minute. “He’s a good man. Daniel.”

“He is,” Peggy agreed, staring down into her cup and stirring her tea longer than she normally would. “So are you,” she told him. “But I couldn’t…” She trailed off, not even sure herself what she had been planning to say.

“Peggy, I didn’t expect you to mourn me forever. I’m honestly sorry you mourned me at all. I never wanted to make you unhappy.”

Peggy looked up at him sharply. “Steve, mourn is too pale a term for what I felt when you died. I was _devastated_.” Her voice caught in her throat and Steve reached tentatively across the table to take her hand. “But I was also alive. And,” she took a breath, shallow though it was, “it took me a very long time, but I came to realize that dwelling on what might have been is no way to live.” Tears gathered in her eyes, and she tried so hard not to let them fall.

“And then I showed up and put you through all that again.” Steve’s tone was sad and little angry, but it was clear he was only angry at himself.

“No!” She squeezed his hand, _hard_. “No, I will never regret you coming here and don’t you regret it either. To know you’re alive, that you got to live past that horrible day… Steve, I feel privileged to be able to help you. To have you back, just for this time, is a gift.” She took another deep breath, or at least tried to; her chest felt so tight. “But… I’m not the same person I was in the war. I want different things, different - ”

“You want Daniel.” It wasn’t a question.

She nodded, the tears falling down her cheeks despite her best efforts.

“It’s ok, Peg. Really. I didn’t come here to try and pick up where we left off. We can’t. I know that.”

“That would be difficult,” she agreed, wiping her cheeks with the palm of her hand. “You know, I’ve been thinking about it, and we’ve now been apart twice as long as we knew each other. Isn’t that odd? Though I suppose it’s been even longer for you. How… how long has it been? Since the_ Valkyrie_?”

Steve looked down. “14 years. Roughly.”

Peggy tried to make a joke, tried to get herself under control. “14… my, you must have forgotten all about me.”

Steve’s eyes snapped up, meeting hers with a painful certainty. “Peggy, I _never_ forgot about you.”

She had thought the tears were under control. 

She had been wrong.

“Did you, did you ever think about coming back for me?” she asked, quiet even to her own ears.

“I did. I thought about it all the time.” There were tears in Steve’s eyes now, too.

“Then - ”

“Before…” He sighed. “Before time travel became possible, when I was first revived, I read all about you. Read up on your life, what you’d done, who you’d become. And I couldn’t help feeling like if I came back I’d be robbing you of all that.”

Peggy shook her head. “That’s what life is, though, a series of choices you make to have one thing instead of another.”

“Yeah, but there’s a difference between hypotheticals and knowing, in vivid, photographic detail, what you’d lose. What I’d be taking from you. If I had survived that crash, if we’d made a go of it in 1945, that would be different. We’d be growing together. Instead…”

“Instead we grew apart.” Peggy closed her eyes again, though the tears were finally subsiding.

Steve took both her hands in his, then waited until she opened her eyes to look at him. 

“You’re gonna have a great life, Peg. And I am so, so proud and honored to have been a part of it. And one of my biggest regrets will always be not giving you my coordinates that day. But I couldn’t just come back, a decade and a half later, knowing what I knew, and blow up your life. It would have eaten me up.” He looked down. “I haven’t decided yet if that was selfish or selfless.”

“It was selfless,” she said, voice stronger than it had been since they had started talking.

“How do you know?” he asked.

“Because it’s you,” she told him. “And you’re one of the best men I’ve ever known.” Peggy stood up abruptly and grabbed a dish towel to dry her eyes. She took one more deep breath, grateful that this time it didn’t hurt when she did. “I'll always love you, you know. I just...” she trailed off, but luckily Steve understood.

Steve nodded. “I know. I’ll always love you too.”

Peggy smiled, tremulous, but sincere. “Do you think… do you think we could have our dance?”

His expression turned incredulous. “Now?”

She gave a small shrug. “I’d like to change that part of our story. Wouldn’t you?”

“You know what? I think I would.” He stood up and took her hand, let her lead him back into the living room. Peggy turned on the radio and adjusted the dial until the sounds of a slow Harry James song wafted through the room. Then she took his hand and they danced.

They danced and they danced and as they did Peggy cried again, but this time she wasn’t sad; she felt at peace.

Eventually the sun outside began to set and the mood inside began to shift. Peggy pulled back to look him in the eye.

“You’ve been holding out on me, Captain Rogers - you know very well how to dance.”

“I’ve picked up a few things over the years.”

“Mmmm. Well, I'm very glad we got our dance, even if it’s not quite how I imagined it.”

“Really? I always figured it’d be in your fiancé’s living room.” Peggy laughed and put her head back on his shoulder. Steve sighed. “I’ve missed you, Peg. Not... I’ve just missed _you_. I’ve missed my friend.”

“I’ve missed my friend, too.” She pulled her head back to look at him. “You could stay, you know. If Jason and Dr. Samberly can’t fix your… or even if they can. You could stay. Here. With us.”

Steve stopped dancing, though he still held her hands in his. “Peggy, I tried to make things better for one person and it blew up in my face. Imagine that times 1,000. To know every terrible thing that’s going to happen over the next 70 years and not be able to do anything about it? That sounds like hell. And if that’s my only option then… then I don’t belong here anymore. I’m not built for standing on the sidelines.”

“No,” she agreed, “you’re not. But, can you promise me something?”

“Anything.”

“Don’t forget to have a life of your own.”

“You sound just like…” He smiled and released her hands. “Yeah, I promise.”

“Good.” She lifted her hands to her face to dry her cheeks. “So… what shall we do now?”

Steve walked over to the end table. He moved one of Peggy’s scarves and an empty coffee cup out of the way and picked up the neglected stack of RSVPs. “Now? I think we put everybody else where they belong.”

And that was how Daniel found them an hour later, working on the seating chart and arguing about which Howling Commando could be trusted to sit near the bar.

The answer turned out to be none of them.

\---------------------

Dinner was nice. Really, really nice. They took their time tonight, enjoyed each other’s company. Peggy and Daniel shared stories from the SSR and Steve told some heavily edited tales from the future. Eventually Peggy yawned and Daniel suggested they clean up. He disappeared for a minute, then returned to help her and Steve wash and dry. 

Once they were done, Peggy stretched her arms above her head. “Would either of you mind terribly if I took a bath?”

Steve shook his head and Daniel smiled softly. “There’s already a tumbler of bourbon next to the tub,” he said.

Peggy chuckled. “Too good for this world, Daniel Sousa,” she said, kissing him on the cheek. She waved goodbye to Steve and moved out of the kitchen, leaving Steve and Daniel alone.

Daniel nodded his head in the direction of the living room. “There’s a Dodgers game we could probably catch the end of - you interested?”

“Yeah, sure. Do you know who’s pitching?” Steve asked.

“Don Newcombe,” Daniel said. “He’s new, but he’s phenomenal.”

The two men retired to the living room, each with a beer, and took up seats across from each other. They listened to the radio quietly for a few minutes, enjoying the sounds of the game, before Daniel spoke.

“You could stay,” he said slowly. “In 1949 I mean,” he added with a pointed smile. “The house is a little small for three.”

Steve eyed him carefully. “You’d be ok with that?”

Daniel sat back in his seat, his thumb rubbing the neck of his beer bottle absently. “Steve, very early in our acquaintance, Dr. Jason Wilkes shoved a shotgun in Peggy’s face and threatened to kill her if I didn’t give him some highly sensitive material we had in the SSR.” 

Steve sat up at that, anger flooding his system at the image Daniel’s words conjured in his mind. Daniel noticed and shook his head slightly. “There were... mitigating circumstances. He was infected with Zero Matter, and none of us have ever been totally sure how much that affected his actions. But the point is, he did it. And I was angry at him. For a long time, I was angry.” Daniel took a deep breath, shrugged slightly, and continued.

“But it’s not that big a town, even smaller when you’re both in Peggy’s orbit, and we kept running into each other. Turned out we both liked jazz, both liked the horses. It took a while, but I woke up one day and realized we were friends. And I was good with that. And next week, when I get married, he’s gonna be one of the guys standing up there beside me.”

Daniel leaned forward in his chair and looked Steve in the eye.

“Jason Wilkes threatened to kill Peggy and now he’s one of my best friends. All you’ve ever done is save my life and treat the woman I love with respect.” A little smile played on his lips and he shrugged. “Plus, you’re a Dodgers fan. I don’t really anticipate a problem. Do you?”

“I don’t. Except I can’t stay. And I think you know why - you’re not built for standing on the sidelines either.”

Daniel nodded. “Yeah, I get it. But I had to ask. I _wanted_ to ask. You’re a good guy, Steve. I would have liked to get to know you better.”

“Thanks. The feeling is mutual.” Steve paused and considered what he wanted to say. “I’m probably going back tomorrow. And before I do… look, I know she’s more than capable of handling anything that gets thrown at her, and she'd kill me for even asking this, but I’m gonna do it anyway - promise me you’ll take care of Peggy?”

Daniel shot him an amused look. “If she'd kill you for asking, imagine what she’d do to me for agreeing.” He shrugged, the casual movement belying the solemnity of his next statement. “But I’m going to promise to do my very best anyway.”

“Good,” Steve told him. “Good. I’m… I’m so glad she found you.”

“I’m glad she found you, too. Then and now." Daniel reached out his glass purposefully towards Steve. “I guess we’re both pretty lucky,” he decided. With a nod, Steve reached out his own bottle and clinked it with Daniel’s in silent agreement.

Then they sat back in their chairs and listened as the Dodgers game went into extra innings.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Donald Newcombe was a pitcher for (among other teams) the Brooklyn Dodgers, and was the first pitcher to win the Rookie of the Year, Most Valuable Player, and Cy Young Awards during his career.
> 
> This has literally nothing to do with the story, but if you’re into baseball history, he’s a name you should know. And even if you’re not, maybe it will help with your next trivia night.
> 
> You’re welcome! ;-)


	6. Chapter 6

The next morning the three of them arrived at the lab together, bright and early and hopeful that this would be the day they sent Steve home.

Jason met them at the door. 

“Do you want the good news or the bad news?” he asked.

Peggy sighed. “Depends on how bad, I suppose.”

Jason wobbled his head slightly for a moment before coming to a decision. “Well the good news is that we’ve come up with a workaround for the original problem. We’ve adapted one of Howard’s ideas from his theories on the quantum realm to create a kind of… booster system, for the Captain’s device. It will provide the additional power he needs to use it.”

“And the bad news?” Daniel asked.

“The bad news is we’re having trouble targeting the destination.”

Peggy leveled a look at him. “Jason, I believe you may have buried the lead here.” She sighed again. “What’s the trouble? _Specifically_.”

“Specifically? Here, I’ll show you.” Jason led them all down to the lab where Samberly, Rose and Jarvis were already gathered. Jason held out his hand and Steve handed him the device.

“Here,” he indicated that everyone should look. “When we try to plot in the destination like Captain Rogers showed us, look what happens.”

They all looked down and could see what he meant. The date and location would stay there for a moment and then morph, the numbers seeming at random.

Samberly piped up. “We’ve been over those projection schematics twenty times. It shouldn’t be doing this.” He turned to Steve. “Did you alter the device at all in your travels?”

“What do you mean?” Steve asked, a sinking feeling starting to form in his stomach.

“I mean, did you do anything the rest of your time travel club didn’t? Wander through an atomic detonation, get hit by lightning? The readings we’re getting only make sense if you did something like that.”

“Lightning?” Steve asked slowly. He ran a hand through his hair and sat down in the nearest chair. “My last mission,” he began, cautiously parsing the words so as not to reveal too much, “I traveled with six extremely powerful artifacts and a hammer that… contained the power of a great storm. Is it possible that the interaction of the seven items supercharged the device?”

“I suppose,” Samberly began, “though without knowing the chemical makeup of the - ”

“Hold up,” Daniel interrupted, ignoring Samberly’s loud sigh and addressing Steve directly. “Did you say a hammer?”

“Yes.”

“A hammer that contained a storm? Did you… ” Daniel closed his eyes and rubbed at the bridge of his nose. “I can’t even believe I’m asking this, this is crazy.” He sighed and opened his eyes. “Did you travel with _Mjölnir_?”

Steve didn’t meet Daniel’s gaze. “Yes.”

Daniel let out a soft curse in a language Steve was unfamiliar with and sat down himself. “You know, you’d think I’d stop being surprised by all this, but nope, here we are.”

“Be that as it may,” Peggy cut in, “what can we do about it now?”

Jason looked at her, worried. “Honestly? I don’t know. But we’ll keep trying.”

“Good. We’re running out of time, gentlemen, I suggest you get to work.”

Samberly narrowed his eyes in suspicion and leaned over to Rose. “Mjölnir… is that Russian?”

Rose patted him on the arm and then moved over closer to Peggy, Daniel and Steve. 

“What can I do?” she asked.

Peggy spoke up first. “I’d like to do a perimeter check, make sure we’re as secure here as possible in case we get unwanted company.” Steve nodded and made to stand, but she stopped him. “Actually, I think it’s best if you remain out of sight for now.”

“Peggy…” he began, but she cut his argument off with a raised hand.

“You’re the mission, Steve. And you know it’s safer this way.”

Reluctantly, Steve conceded her point with a soft grunt. Peggy and Rose started to leave, but Daniel stayed behind. “I’ll catch up in a minute,” he said. “I just want to run an idea past Jason first.” Peggy nodded and left with Rose. 

Daniel waited until they were gone, then leaned in towards Steve, speaking in a low voice. “Thor’s hammer? _Seriously_? Can you - ”

“No,” Steve interrupted him. “I’m sorry,” he said sincerely, “but that’s not a story I can share.”

Daniel nodded in resigned disappointment. “Can you at least tell me what’s it like?”

“Heavy. Excellent balance. Shorter handle than you’d expect.”

Daniel got a wistful look in his eye. “Is that right? Huh. Well, just know that 10-year-old me is extremely jealous. Excuse me.” Daniel moved over to talk with Jason, leaving Steve alone. He tapped his fingers on the table, at loose ends as to what to do with himself, before an idea took hold.

Steve made his way over to Jarvis, who was standing off to the side observing the scientists.

“Excuse me, Mr. Jarvis, can I ask you something?”

Jarvis turned to him in slight surprise. They hadn’t interacted much yet, though Jarvis had always been unfailingly polite and kind to him when they did. “Of course, sir. How can I be of assistance?”

“Does Howard keep any materials around for design concepts? Pen and paper, that kind of thing.”

“He does. Would you like me to show you?”

“I would, yeah. Thank you.”

“Of course, sir.” The butler started to turn, then paused. “If I may say, sir, I am sorry to see you go. You have had a profound impact on two of the dearest people in my life, and I wish I had the opportunity to get to know you better. However, as that is unlikely to be the case, I will just say thank you for all you did. And, I suppose given your timeline, for all you will do.”

Steve smiled, touched at the other man's words. “I could say the same thing to you, Mr. Jarvis.”

Jarvis looked incredulous. “I think not, sir. I’m just happy to be helpful.”

“Peggy’s told me enough stories, Mr. Jarvis, don’t sell yourself short. Trust me, heroes wear all kinds of getups.” He gestured to the other man. “You just happen to wear a three piece suit. So do me a favor, ok? Keep an eye on these guys after I go.”

Jarvis nodded. “A pleasure, sir.” Then he led Steve out of the lab and upstairs.

\---------------------

The perimeter sweep turned up nothing, though Peggy, Rose and Daniel did discuss possible defensive positions should any unexpected visitors turn up. The three returned inside to find Jason and Samberly hard at work and Steve in the corner with a pad of paper. He didn’t look like he wanted to be disturbed, so she set herself up nearby and waited for new information.

She didn’t like it when it came.

Despite his background in the Navy, Jason rarely cursed. So a soft “fuck me” coming almost involuntarily from his lips signaled something very bad indeed.

“Jason?” she asked, and was surprised to see in his eyes equal parts wonderment and horror. The exchange caught everyone’s attention and the group made their way back to the table.

Samberly, for his part, looked completely dazed and a little nauseous.

Peggy looked between them, worried. “Jason, what’s going on? You’re scaring me.”

He finally looked up and shook himself a little. “Sorry, sorry. I think we figured out what the numbers mean.” He took a deep breath. “Have any of you ever studied the theory of the unobservable extra dimension?”

“Only to make conversation,” Steve answered wryly.

“Some people are starting to call it string theory,” Jason clarified, as though that clarified anything. “But that’s not the point. The point is that there is a theory - untested, unproven - that there are, in fact, multiple universes of which we are just one.”

No one said a word, so Jason continued.

“And it seems, based on our readings and calculations, that Captain Roger’s device is vacillating in its destination coordinates, between our universe and… another.”

Again, no one spoke.

Except Samberly.

“You know, you could all act a little more impressed with this. Sheesh. We might have literally proven the multiverse theory here,” he huffed.

“Samberly…” Daniel growled in warning. The scientist had the good sense to stop speaking.

“What does this mean?” Peggy asked firmly. “For _Steve_,” she clarified.

“It means that if we send him through, we can’t be sure where he’ll end up. Or when.” Jason looked at Peggy. “I’m so sorry, Peggy, I don’t think we can fix this.”

Peggy nodded firmly. “So he doesn’t go.”

Steve looked at her sharply. “Peggy…”

“No, Steve, this is too dangerous. We’ll come up with another way. We’ll keep working on a solution.”

“Peggy!”

“This is not up for discussion!” Peggy turned back to Jason and Samberly. “Keep working on it, but he doesn’t go anywhere unless I say so.”

She stormed out of the room and upstairs. Pouring herself a glass of water, she took a sip, then placed the glass back on the counter with more force than was strictly necessary. A moment later she heard a noise behind her and whirled around.

Steve was leaning on the door frame with his arms crossed.

“If you’re here to argue…” she began.

Steve pushed off the door frame and moved closer to her. “It’s not an argument. It’s a choice. And it’s mine. Please, Peggy, allow me the dignity of - .”

“No,” she interrupted with a huff and a roll of her eyes. “You don’t get to throw my words back at me twice in one week.”

“Well, I’ve got a lot of time to make up for,” he explained, a little smile playing in the corners of his lips.

She sighed. “It’s too dangerous.”

Steve shrugged. “I’m traveling through the quantum realm - it was always going to be dangerous.”

“You could end up anywhere.”

“I could,” he agreed.

“You can’t…” she began, then spun around to face the counter again, her hands gripping the edge so tightly they hurt. 

“I can’t what?” he asked, suddenly concerned.

“Nothing,” she muttered. 

“I can’t what?” he repeated, softer this time. “Peggy, please talk to me. Don’t shut me out.”

She spun around on him then, suddenly angry at Steve and at the universe and at all its terrible twists of fate. “You can’t do this to me _again_! You can’t say goodbye and just disappear into another void. You made your choice, Steve, but I’m the one that lived with it. I have already replayed one terrible moment over and over and over again and I won’t do it a second time. I won’t listen on the other end of another radio and hear only static and wait for a response that will never come. I _can’t!_”

Steve walked over to hug her but she pushed him away, electing instead to face the sink again and compose herself.

After that he was quiet for a long time. “Ok,” he said finally, and she turned around because she must have heard him wrong.

“Ok?” she asked.

“Ok. Let’s make sure there’s a response this time.” Steve tentatively held out his hand and, after a moment’s hesitation, Peggy took it. He squeezed it once, then pulled her in for a hug, which this time she accepted. She held on until her heartbeat felt normal again, and then she let go. 

They made their way back down to the lab together, where they found Jason and Samberly working on the booster device while Daniel, Rose and Jarvis helped as best they could. 

“We have a request,” Steve called as they walked in. The rest of the group looked up. “Is there any way that we can create a communication system on this? So I can check in. At least once.”

Jason tilted his head a little, looking at the booster. “Actually, that might be easier than you would think. Based on all the tests we’ve run so far, we believe that once we use our booster device, that it, the original tunnel in 2023, and Captain Rogers himself will all become entangled on a… on a _quantum_ level, with the booster being the anchor.”

“What does that mean?” Steve asked.

Samberly stepped forward. “It’s a simple extension of the Einstein–Podolsky–Rosen paradox and Heisenberg's uncertainty principle, a quantum superposition of two states - ”

Steve cut him off. “In English, Samberly!”

Samberly frowned at him, but continued. “It’s like when a ping pong ball.. no wait, it’s more like… it’s like a rubber band when you pull it too far and it snaps back - ”

“In _better_ English.”

Samberly sighed, deep and put upon. “Basically, wherever you go, in space and time, you’ll get pulled back to the anchor when it and the tunnel are back in sync.”

“When they’re both in the year 2023.” Steve clarified.

“Exactly. Wherever, _whenever_ you go, in 74 years our time you’ll get pulled back to the place and time you left originally.”

“Thank you,” Steve said, in a tone that suggested it shouldn’t have been that hard to explain.

“What about the signal?” Peggy asked.

“What about it?” Samberly answered.

Steve looked over it at him. “Samberly, I swear you’re on my last nerve right now.”

“Thank you!” Daniel muttered, then had the good sense to look contrite at Peggy’s irritated expression. 

“Daniel, Steve, be quiet,” she said. “Jason, Dr. Samberly, how do we use this quantum… entanglement was it? How do we use it to send a signal back?”

“It should be a pretty simple fix using a feedback loop,” Jason assured her. “I’ll get to work on it now.”

“And that other matter?” Daniel asked.

“Already finished,” Jason said, handing him a small item. “You just need to wind it to turn it on.”

“Great,” Daniel said. 

“What’s this?” Peggy asked.

Daniel held up a rather gaudy wristwatch. “I asked Jason to spoof the signal these guys are using to track Steve. This way we can use it to lure a contingent of them out somewhere unpopulated and round up as many as possible for detention and questioning.” He looked at Steve. “Make at least a few of the bastards pay.”

Steve raised an eyebrow and tilted his head a fraction to the left. “Smart thinking, Chief.”

“Thanks,” Daniel said, pocketing the watch.

“Wasn’t that Howard’s watch?” Peggy asked.

Jarvis coughed. “Yes, well, Dr. Wilkes needed something of that approximate size, and I felt Mr. Stark would understand the need to sacrifice that ostentatious monstrosity for science. All gone now, so sad.”

Peggy laughed. “You’re really getting into the spirit of Code Peggy, aren’t you, Mister Jarvis.”

“I’m sure I don’t know what you mean,” he said, sounding slightly offended. The effect was somewhat diminished when he winked at her. “Do you need any other items of Mr. Stark’s for the SSR? He has a truly hideous hat I would very much like to see - ”

Just then a loud piercing sound filled the lab. 

“That’s the proximity alarm,” Jarvis announced anxiously. “There must be cars approaching up the drive.”

“They’re early,” Daniel noted, pulling a weapon from his briefcase.

“Apparently. How close are you to getting that working?” Peggy asked the scientists. 

Samberly shrugged. “I… soon, I suppose. But we haven’t tested it!”

“We may not have that luxury,” Steve said, grabbing a stool and pulling off the bottom legs. The seat section sat over his left arm in a way so familiar to Peggy for a minute she was back in 1945. Steve tested its weight and seemed satisfied. 

Jason coughed. “We definitely don’t.” He held up Steve’s device which appeared to be glowing slightly. “I think your friends are tired of chasing you, Captain. They were using an isotope that reacts with radio waves to track you, which is pretty benign on its own, but it’s definitely reacting now.”

“To what?” Peggy asked.

“A specific radio frequency, I assume. It’s literally turning the tracker corrosive - given enough time it will destroy the device.”

“How much time?” Steve asked.

Jason put the device under a microscope. “Best guess? 20 to 30 minutes.”

Steve’s jaw clenched and he looked at Peggy, who stared back with anxiety writ large across her face. “I think this is the end of the line, Peg. I need to go. _Now_.”

Peggy hesitated, just for a moment, then nodded at Steve. Not taking her eyes off him, she addressed the two scientists. 

“Jason, Dr. Samberly, get that machine working, quick as you can. We’re sending Captain Rogers home _now_.” Steve put a hand on her shoulder in thanks and she threw him a quick smile before grabbing her gun out of her purse. “Daniel, Steve, Rose - let’s go welcome our uninvited guests.”

Samberly looked around the room, an apprehensive expression on his face. “Are we all sure about this plan?” he piped up. “Because I for one, am against it, and I think we should all get a vote. Who’s with me. Chief Sousa? Captain Rogers? What about - ”

“Do as Peggy says!” the two men yelled in unison as they moved towards the door.

Jarvis coughed and raised his hand. “And what can I do?”

Daniel called over his shoulder from the doorway. “Call Agent Myers at the SSR and tell him to bring a team out here - I want to give our friends an official US of A welcome.”

A few minutes later the group was assembled near the front door.

“How many do you expect?” Peggy asked Steve.

“The only two times they caught up to me, there were about ten guys. But I’ve been here longer than anywhere since the tracker was put on. If I were these guys, I’d send in a team for extraction and have at least one more waiting elsewhere in case they failed.”

Peggy nodded as they turned a corner just in time to hear something heavy hit the front door. Without a word, she and the others spread out in a standard formation with a single determining thought - no one was getting past them today.

The front door flung open and the first two enemy agents entered, only to meet Steve’s makeshift shield and go down quickly, which, unfortunately, alerted the rest of the intruders to the team’s presence. The next two Peggy and Rose hit with solid right hooks and no mercy, while Daniel swept the leg of the fifth and knocked him out with a downward blow. 

Another half dozen rushed in after that, and Peggy lost track of anyone she wasn’t directly engaged with, though she did see Rose clothesline someone and Steve punch one of the goons into another. The trespassers all put up a good fight, but in the end all of them went down and none of them got further than the foyer. The whole thing lasted less than 10 minutes. 

“There could be more,” Daniel said, looking out the window into the late afternoon light. He called over to Peggy. “We got this. Rose and I will stay here, while you and Steve get him set to go.”

Steve hesitated. “I really think I should stay here. Given - ”

One of the intruders suddenly jumped up and rushed at Steve, only to go down again as a well-aimed crutch abruptly hit his larynx with significant force.

“Like I said, we got this.” Daniel repeated, slowly lowering his left arm. Steve nodded.

“Thank you. For everything.” He reached out and shook Daniel’s hand.

“It’s been an honor, Captain. Good luck.”

Steve nodded and then turned to follow Peggy back down to the lab. Daniel called out before they left. “Oh and send Jarvis up, would you?” Peggy shot him a quizzical look and Daniel shrugged. “He’s not my first pick in a fight, but the man knows how to wrangle and these guys need to be restrained.” 

Peggy tilted her head in the affirmative, then ushered Steve downstairs, where they found the other three men.

“Mr. Jarvis, Daniel requires you and some very good rope in the foyer please.”

“Very good, Miss Carter. Oh, and Agent Myers said there was already a team in the area and they should be here soon.” He made his way upstairs, leaving Steve and Peggy alone with the scientists.

“Are we ready, Doctors?” Peggy asked.

“We are…” Jason sound reluctant. “I would like to point out once again that at this stage, most of this is theoretical. We’ve barely tested it!”

“My risk to take, Doctor,” Steve said. “Now, how do I work the signal?”

Jason showed him the adjustments he’d made to his device. “Speak into this. It should be able to send back a short message, maybe 3-5 seconds, before it runs out of power.”

“What if he needs to come back?” Peggy asked. “What if it sends him somewhere dangerous and he needs extraction?”

“Honestly? I don’t know. We try to pull him back, certainly. But it’s untested, Peggy. I’m sorry.”

“No, I… you’ve done incredible work this week. Thank you.” Peggy squeezed his hand, then walked back over to Steve. “Are you ready?”

“As I’ll ever be. I just wish…” He looked down at the ground and lightly shook his head. “I came all this way, jeopardized the _future_ to save Bucky, and in the end I didn’t do anything to help him. I’ve lost so many people, but Bucky… I know I need to go, it’s just,” he sighed, deep and sad, “it’s a hard pill to swallow.”

Peggy looked at him sharply for a moment then hurried over to her purse. She pulled out a notebook and handed it to him. 

“What is this?” he asked, leafing through the many handwritten pages.

“I was going to show it to you tonight, get your opinion once it was a little more formalized, but it seems we’ve run out of time.” She took back the notebook and held it to her chest. 

“This is a plan I’ve started working on to develop a de-programming protocol,” she explained. “I’ve been talking to leading psychiatrists and psychologists all week. We’re going to start work in earnest next month, and, though he doesn’t know it yet, Howard’s going to fund it as a wedding present. So that when Bucky finds us, we can help him. Because of _you_, Steve. We’ll be able to help him because of you.”

Steve inhaled sharply, tears in his eyes, then let out a shaky breath. “Thank you, Peggy. I… thank you. For everything, really, but… this means more to me than you’ll ever know.”

“I know, Steve, I do.” She gripped the notebook so tightly her knuckles turned white, then turned suddenly to face Jason. “In this multiverse theory - what are the other universes like?”

Jason hesitated. “The prevailing thought is that they’re like ours, with some key differences.”

“But they _are_ different?” 

Jason nodded. “That’s the theory, but Peggy - ” 

“Yes, yes, I know, untested,” she snapped, then turned back to Steve. “Give her your coordinates.”

Steve looked at her, confused. “Give her… what? Who?”

Peggy hesitated; this was all happening too fast, her thoughts were a jumble. She took a deep breath and forced herself to slow down. To get it right. “I just mean, you don’t have to go it alone anymore. Wherever you’re going, it will _all_ be hypotheticals there. With _everyone_. Find someone special. Build a new family, build a new _life_. And make it beautiful. You deserve that, Steve, no one deserves it more. Be happy. Please, promise me you’ll try.”

Steve nodded. “You have my word,” he said.

“We’re ready,” Jason said.

Peggy nodded and Steve stepped over to the booster device. He looked at the two scientists. “Thank you for this.”

Samberly waved his hand in acknowledgement and Jason smiled, then held up a timer. “On my mark, Captain.”

Steve pressed a button on his handheld device and was suddenly sheathed in a white uniform that reminded Peggy of a containment suit but thinner and shinier. 

Jason began. “Five - ”

“Wait!” Peggy yelled. She rushed over to Steve and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek and then leaned up to whisper in his ear. “You deserve a happy ending, Steve. Go get it.”

Then she stepped back again and waited.

Jason began again. “Five, four, three, two, one.”

And then Steve was gone.

\---------------------

Peggy watched him disappear, willing herself to breathe. 

Jason and Samberly were checking readings on the booster but they barely registered for her. She moved over to the bench on the wall and let her legs collapse under her. 

A moment later, Daniel appeared in the doorway.

“He’s gone?” he asked. Peggy nodded, her eyes never leaving the spot where Steve had stood moments ago. Daniel moved over to sit next to her. “The SSR team is upstairs with Rose, finishing up with our unwanted guests, including a second team that was waiting down the drive.” He looked at Peggy, took in her expression, then turned his attention back to the scientists. “How long until we can expect that signal?”

Jason looked between the device and Daniel. “In theory we should receive it now. Quantum fluctuation messes with the Planck scale, which means it will be forced back in time. Theoretically, there should be no delay, no matter when he sends it. Of course…” He trailed off. No one needed reminding that this whole endeavor was untested.

Peggy sat on the bench, more still than she ever was. The only sound in the room was the quiet whir of the booster machine, but to her ears it sounded very much like static.

Without a word, Daniel took her hand in his and sat vigil with her.

Several minutes later, Jarvis entered, then Rose. One by one they all sat on the bench and waited.

Then, without warning, the machine whirred faster.

“Steve?” she called. Her brain knew he couldn’t hear her, but her heart hadn’t gotten the message.

Silence.

Silence.

“Peggy? I’m ok. I’m happy here, I promise. It’s - ”

Silence.

Peggy smiled, tears in her eyes, and put her head on Daniel’s shoulder.

“Goodbye, Steve,” she whispered, and squeezed Daniel’s hand in hers.

Time and tide and complicated twists of fate had led them both where they were supposed to be.

And now it was time to go home.

\---------------------

**Epilogue **

Life got back to normal surprisingly quickly after Steve’s departure. The six people who had been directly involved in the affair determined to never tell anyone else, for fear that it would alter history. That, and they figured no one would believe them anyway.

They were especially determined not to tell Howard, knowing he would go out and search ten times as hard for Captain America, despite Steve’s own wishes. Jarvis thought he would feel conflicted about the lie, but he didn’t. Sometimes Howard had to be protected from Howard.

Daniel and Peggy didn’t talk much about Steve after he left, but Daniel could tell that knowing her friend was out there somewhere, happy and alive, had lifted something heavy from Peggy’s heart, and Daniel was forever grateful they had been able to help him. And when Peggy and Daniel married the week after the incident, they placed three empty chairs up front; one for Daniel’s mother, one for Peggy’s brother, and one they didn’t identify, though all the Howling Commandos made sure to salute it in turn. 

And after the wedding, when they were going through the gifts, they found one with no name. It was a simple line drawing in a simple frame - Peggy and Daniel, him laughing on the phone while she stuck her tongue out at him. The only clue as to the artist’s identity were the initials “SR” in the bottom right hand corner. Peggy and Daniel never told anyone who had drawn it, but it had a place of honor on every mantlepiece in every house they ever owned.

True to her word, Peggy - first at the SSR, then as Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. - oversaw development of the most sophisticated de-programming initiative in US history, one that helped many people reclaim their own minds, and which, many years later, a teenage genius in Wakanda would incorporate into the technological elements of her own program to help a broken man become whole again.

And as for the booster device, Peggy and Daniel buried it under one of the National Monuments to ensure its safety. There it stayed, quiet and unnoticed, until one one day, 74 years later, when it woke up and called Steve Rogers home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> All of the scientific theories in this story are real and time period appropriate, though whether any of them are related in any way to time travel… well, you’ll have to take that up with the folks who wrote Endgame. ;-) The Einstein–Podolsky–Rosen (or EPR) paradox and Heisenberg's uncertainty principle in particular are both related to quantum entanglement and really interesting if you have just an enormous amount of free time.
> 
> There is a super interesting article on how fuck became, and still is, “the most frequently used crutch-word in the military,” though I still went back and forth on using it for weeks. https://warisboring.com/world-war-ii-and-the-f-word/
> 
> Thank you to everyone who stuck with this until the end of the line. Like I said at the beginning, I believe these characters deserved better than they got in Endgame, and I did my best to honor that with this, my first foray into a wider fandom universe (universes? universi?). In any case, I hope you felt that I did as I set out to do, and I hope you enjoyed the story. :-)


End file.
